ABSTRACT
The data in this chapter show how the experience of a school shooting trauma influences how the participants, Columbine survivors who are teachers, build relationships with students. The shooting influenced how participants build relationships with their students around themes of classroom culture, vulnerability, restorative practices, boundaries, and warning signs. Classroom culture included the concepts of prioritizing relationships, honoring student voices and “seeing” students, and accepting, including, and welcoming, social-emotional learning, and trauma-informed instruction. Participants have varying levels of vulnerability with their schools concerning sharing that they are a survivor of the Columbine shooting. Some of the participants, including the author, use restorative practices as a way to build relationships with their students and shared their experiences of restorative practices with regard to school shootings. Some participants spoke about the need for boundaries in the teacher–student relationship. All participants use warning signs of students’ behavior they consider concerning and understand their role to prevent another Columbine by getting students the help they need. Participants spoke about mandatory reporting and mental health services, “gut feelings, warning signs, and red flags,” and teachers can only do so much, including the Columbine teachers in 1999.
