ABSTRACT
Until recent history, parents sent their children to school every day, assuming that school was safe. This type of safety is no longer valid in the United States. School shootings have occurred in elementary schools, high schools, community colleges, and universities, and an entire generation has grown up under the threat of being murdered in their classrooms. Lockdown drills are now a routine part of the school experience, and this alone is a practice that causes anxiety for students and teachers. The threat of violence changes a child’s perception of safety in the world. And as Patrick Korellis shares, each new attack brings a revisiting of a survivor’s trauma response. The mind and body respond as if they are once again under attack. There may be an acute experience of threat, sensations of lingering wounds, and awareness of bullet fragments left in the body. These perceptions and intense feelings are startling but entirely understandable. They fuel Patrick’s empathy.
