(WWJ) – On Tuesday, 19 children and two adults were shot and killed inside of a 4th grade classroom at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.
While much of the national conversation is focusing on what comes next – both for the small Texas community and the larger picture of gun safety in the U.S. – there are millions of parents in Michigan and across the country with a big question:
How do I talk about this with my own child?
In a new episode of The Daily J podcast, WWJ's Zach Clark searches for the best ways to have that chat while mitigating fear.
Tuesday's shooting reopened wounds for many in Metro Detroit, a little less than six months removed from the deadly Nov. 30 shooting at Oxford High School.
"As we pray for those in Texas, we think and pray for our own community and our own staff and our own children, who this just pokes at that scab and begins to peel it back a bit," Oxford School Board President Tom Donnelly said at the start of Tuesday night's meeting.
Dr. Joanna Quigley of Michigan Medicine say kids, even as young as 6 years old, are becoming aware of what's going on around them, so it's important to lay some ground work.
"I think laying the ground work at home and saying 'you may hear at school about what happened yesterday, or your teachers may be bringing up safety again, even though I know you do drills occasionally. And this is why, and I want you to know that if you have questions, you can come to me,'" Quigley said."
Dr. Quigley and other experts offer plenty of advice on how to deal with these types of situations with traumatic news in the forefront.
