The Overlooked Victims
The Overlooked Victims
She grew up in a wonderful home. Her parents were college graduates with advanced degrees. They had been married for over 25 years. They vacationed together, spent holidays with extended family and spent week-ends doing fun things together. High School was over and she was a freshman in one of the most prestigious schools in the state and on one of the most beautiful campuses in the country. In a few short weeks her first year would be behind her.
She was sitting in her foreign language class when they heard a popping noise. The instructor stepped out into the hall and looked the shooter in the eye. She rushed back in; the students attempted to barricade the door. There were no locks. They shoved a large desk against the door and laid on the floor trying to hold the desk against the door. He pushed on the door and shot through the small gap. Without a word, without showing any emotion, he walked away. More popping sounds. Then quiet. They moved the desk. The stairwell was just outside the door. The professor stepped out and checked the stairwell. There seemed to be no way out. The popping started again and she ran back in. They had barely pushed the desk against the door when he was back. Pushing and heaving against the door. They lay on the floor, praying, keeping the pressure on the desk, holding the door closed. He gave up trying to open the door. Pop, pop, pop. The bullets are shot through the door. It seemed there were thousands of them. It seemed to go on forever. Bullets flew over her head. He was shooting about waist high. Stay on the floor. Don’t panic. He walked away again. More pops. Then silence. Someone is trying to push the door open again. Don’t let the desk move. Don’t let them in. Please go away. Someone is saying something. He says he is the police. Don’t move the desk. How can we be sure? He walks away. In a few minutes, he comes back. Please open the door. It is the police.
The police come in. No one in our room is hurt. Not physically. We can’t go down the stairwell close to the room. We have to walk to the other end of the hall. Don’t slip. The floor is wet. Cell phones are ringing. Dozens of cell phones won’t stop ringing. Why are we having to walk this way? Police are everywhere. Where are they taking us? Be careful, don’t slip. The phones are ringing. It’s only a little after nine in the morning. They take us to another building. They want to talk to us. But it will be a little while. It’s noon. No one is talking to us. No one has questioned us. Why can’t we leave? The t.v.’s are on. It’s all over the news. I’m so tired. It’s one-thirty. Finally they want to talk to me. I’m not physically hurt. I’m not shot. No one in my class was shot. I don’t get counseling. I don’t get an advocate. I’m not a ‘victim’.
She buried herself in school work, majoring in mathematics. She earned a Master’s in Operations. She earned a second Master’s degree in Economics. Math, numbers, calculations, thing’s she can control. Control, she needs to feel like she is back in control. Her menstrual cycle stops. She is only 24. She needs to feel like she is in control. She marries. She is happy. But she is not in control. She is vigilantly watching doorways. With hypervigilance she people watches. She is never comfortable in a crowd. She can’t control the crowd. Crowds are terrifying. Small rooms more so. She lost weight. Too much weight. But it’s been eight years since the shooting.
Post-Traumatic Stress Disorder can come from a single traumatic event, such as a criminal act, as well as from chronic exposure as in the military. For crime victims their level of trauma comes not only from the event itself but it can be exacerbated by the way they are treated following the event. Law enforcement officers must be trauma informed. “With a foundational knowledge of trauma they are better armed to address victims at crime scenes… in a way that is beneficial and can possibly begin to reduce the incidences of PTSD following and event” (Rousseau, 2017).
Victims, like this student, “must also battle with the ‘secondary’ injuries that occur when there is a lack of proper support” (Trauma of Victimization, 2017). To reduce the levels of trauma, and reduce the incidences of PTSD, victims of such a traumatic event such as a school shooting are in need of immediate crisis intervention. Dr. Marlene Young, in Victim Assistance Frontiers and Fundamentals, described a Three Phase Model for Crisis Intervention. The first phase is safety and security. Even though this victim was taken to another building and was removed from the danger, her comfort needs were never met and she sat for hours with no information, other than that provided by the t.v. news, and was never placed in contact with victim service providers. The second phase of the model is ventilation and validation. During this phase, the victim should be allowed to share their account of the event and should be reassured that their reactions, no matter how intense or mild are normal. Some of this may have occurred when she was questioned about the event. And lastly, the victim should be provided prediction, preparation and information. The victim needs to know what happens next and their safety needs must be addressed and resolved. This phase also did not happen for this victim.
The brain of a 19 year old college student is still developing and growing. Trauma changes the brain. “After trauma the world is experienced with a different nervous system. The survivors energy now becomes focused on suppressing inner chaos, at the expense of spontaneous involvement in their life. These attempts to maintain control over unbearable physiological reactions can result in a whole range of physical symptoms” (VanDerKolk, 2015). For this victim her trauma and PTSD manifested itself in an eating disorder (another facet of her life she could ‘control’) and well as the cessation of her menstrual cycles. She would not realize she was suffering from PTSD until she entered counseling for the first time, some eight years after the event. She never went to counseling because those in the criminal justice system told her she was not a victim. She was not shot, she did not die, so she was not considered a victim. It was not until she and her husband wanted to have a child that she realized she must consider mental health counseling to get her physical health back. Fortunately, she was able to find a trauma informed clinician, who was able to treat her PTSD, and she and her husband have a beautiful baby girl. We must never overlook the fact that someone who witnesses such horror, even though they escape unscathed physically, they have not escaped without the physical and psychological injuries of trauma. And they should never be subjected to the horror of ‘secondary injuries’ incurred from a lack of proper support.
Enhancing Law Enforcement Response to Victims. (2009). Retrieved from International Association of Chief’s of Police: http://www.ncdsv.org/images/IACP_Enhancing-LE-Response-to-Victims-Training-Supplemental_revised_2009.pdf
Rousseau, D. (2017, March). Module 3 Lecture Notes. Retrieved from MET CJ Trauma and Crisis Intervention:https://onlinecampus.bu.edu/webapps/blackboard/execute/displayLearningUnit?course_id=_34642_1&content_id=_4896066_1&framesetWrapped=true
Trauma of Victimization. (2017, April 23). Retrieved from The National Center for Victims of Crime: https://victimsofcrime.org/help-for-crime-victims/get-help-bulletins-for-crime-victims/trauma-of-victimization
Van Der Kolk, B. (2015). The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma. New York: Penguin Books.