{"id":170,"date":"2017-04-24T23:13:53","date_gmt":"2017-04-25T03:13:53","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/daniellerousseau\/?p=170"},"modified":"2017-04-27T11:03:39","modified_gmt":"2017-04-27T15:03:39","slug":"the-overlooked-victims","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/daniellerousseau\/2017\/04\/24\/the-overlooked-victims\/","title":{"rendered":"The Overlooked Victims"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Overlooked Victims <\/u><\/strong><\/p>\n

She grew up in a wonderful home.\u00a0 Her parents were college graduates with advanced degrees.\u00a0 They had been married for over 25 years.\u00a0 They vacationed together, spent holidays with extended family and spent week-ends doing fun things together.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 In a few short weeks her first year would be behind her.<\/p>\n

She was sitting in her foreign language class when they heard a popping noise.\u00a0 The instructor stepped out into the hall and looked the shooter in the eye.\u00a0 She rushed back in; the students attempted to barricade the door.\u00a0 There were no locks.\u00a0 They shoved a large desk against the door and laid on the floor trying to hold the desk against the door.\u00a0 He pushed on the door and shot through the small gap. \u00a0Without a word, without showing any emotion, he walked away.\u00a0 More popping sounds.\u00a0 Then quiet.\u00a0 They moved the desk.\u00a0 The stairwell was just outside the door.\u00a0 The professor stepped out and checked the stairwell.\u00a0 There seemed to be no way out.\u00a0 The popping started again and she ran back in.\u00a0 They had barely pushed the desk against the door when he was back.\u00a0 Pushing and heaving against the door.\u00a0 They lay on the floor, praying, keeping the pressure on the desk, holding the door closed.\u00a0 He gave up trying to open the door. Pop, pop, pop.\u00a0 The bullets are shot through the door.\u00a0 It seemed there were thousands of them.\u00a0 It seemed to go on forever.\u00a0 Bullets flew over her head.\u00a0 He was shooting about waist high.\u00a0 Stay on the floor.\u00a0 Don\u2019t panic.\u00a0 He walked away again.\u00a0 More pops.\u00a0 Then silence.\u00a0 Someone is trying to push the door open again.\u00a0 Don\u2019t let the desk move.\u00a0 Don\u2019t let them in.\u00a0 Please go away.\u00a0 Someone is saying something.\u00a0 He says he is the police.\u00a0 Don\u2019t move the desk.\u00a0 How can we be sure?\u00a0 He walks away.\u00a0 In a few minutes, he comes back.\u00a0 Please open the door.\u00a0 It is the police.<\/p>\n

The police come in.\u00a0 No one in our room is hurt.\u00a0 Not physically.\u00a0 We can\u2019t go down the stairwell close to the room.\u00a0 We have to walk to the other end of the hall.\u00a0 Don\u2019t slip.\u00a0 The floor is wet.\u00a0 Cell phones are ringing.\u00a0 Dozens of cell phones won\u2019t stop ringing.\u00a0 Why are we having to walk this way? Police are everywhere.\u00a0 Where are they taking us?\u00a0 Be careful, don\u2019t slip.\u00a0 The phones are ringing.\u00a0 It\u2019s only a little after nine in the morning.\u00a0 They take us to another building.\u00a0 They want to talk to us.\u00a0 But it will be a little while.\u00a0 It\u2019s noon.\u00a0 No one is talking to us.\u00a0 No one has questioned us.\u00a0 Why can\u2019t we leave? The t.v.\u2019s are on.\u00a0 It\u2019s all over the news. \u00a0I\u2019m so tired.\u00a0 It\u2019s one-thirty.\u00a0 Finally they want to talk to me.\u00a0 I\u2019m not physically hurt.\u00a0 I\u2019m not shot.\u00a0 No one in my class was shot.\u00a0 I don\u2019t get counseling.\u00a0 I don\u2019t get an advocate.\u00a0 I\u2019m not a \u2018victim\u2019<\/em>.<\/p>\n

She buried herself in school work, majoring in mathematics.\u00a0 She earned a Master\u2019s in Operations.\u00a0 She earned a second Master\u2019s degree in Economics.\u00a0 Math, numbers, calculations, thing\u2019s she can control.\u00a0 Control, she needs to feel like she is back in control.\u00a0 Her menstrual cycle stops.\u00a0 She is only 24.\u00a0 She needs to feel like she is in control.\u00a0 She marries.\u00a0 She is happy.\u00a0 But she is not in control.\u00a0 She is vigilantly watching doorways.\u00a0 With hypervigilance she people watches.\u00a0 She is never comfortable in a crowd.\u00a0 She can\u2019t control the crowd.\u00a0 Crowds are terrifying.\u00a0 Small rooms more so. She lost weight.\u00a0 Too much weight.\u00a0 But it\u2019s been eight years since the shooting.<\/p>\n

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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Law enforcement officers must be trauma informed.\u00a0 \u201cWith a foundational knowledge of trauma they are better armed to address victims at crime scenes\u2026 in a way that is beneficial and can possibly begin to reduce the incidences of PTSD following and event\u201d (Rousseau, 2017).<\/p>\n

Victims, like this student, \u201cmust also battle with the \u2018secondary\u2019 injuries that occur when there is a lack of proper support\u201d (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.\u00a0 Dr. Marlene Young, in Victim Assistance Frontiers and Fundamentals<\/em>, described a Three Phase Model for Crisis Intervention.\u00a0 The first phase is safety and security.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 Some of this may have occurred when she was questioned about the event. And lastly, the victim should be provided prediction, preparation and information.\u00a0 The victim needs to know what happens next and their safety needs must be addressed and resolved.\u00a0 This phase also did not happen for this victim.<\/p>\n

The brain of a 19 year old college student is still developing and growing.\u00a0 Trauma changes the brain.\u00a0 \u201cAfter trauma the world is experienced with a different nervous system.\u00a0 The survivors energy now becomes focused on suppressing inner chaos, at the expense of spontaneous involvement in their life.\u00a0 These attempts to maintain control over unbearable physiological reactions can result in a whole range of physical symptoms\u201d (VanDerKolk, 2015).\u00a0 For this victim her trauma and PTSD manifested itself in an eating disorder (another facet of her life she could \u2018control\u2019) and well as the cessation of her menstrual cycles.\u00a0 She would not realize she was suffering from PTSD until she entered counseling for the first time, some eight years after the event.\u00a0 She never went to counseling because those in the criminal justice system told her she was not a victim.\u00a0 She was not shot, she did not die, so she was not considered a victim.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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 \u2018secondary injuries\u2019 incurred from a lack of proper support.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Enhancing Law Enforcement Response to Victims<\/em>. (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<\/p>\n

Rousseau, D. (2017, March). Module 3 Lecture Notes.<\/em> 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<\/p>\n

Trauma of Victimization.<\/em> (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<\/p>\n

Van Der Kolk, B. (2015). The Body Keeps the Score: Brain, Mind, and Body in the Healing of Trauma.<\/em> New York: Penguin Books.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Overlooked Victims She grew up in a wonderful home.\u00a0 Her parents were college graduates with advanced degrees.\u00a0 They had been married for over 25 years.\u00a0 They vacationed together, spent holidays with extended family and spent week-ends doing fun things together.\u00a0 High School was over and she was a freshman in one of the most […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":13239,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[2],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/daniellerousseau\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/daniellerousseau\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/daniellerousseau\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/daniellerousseau\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/13239"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/daniellerousseau\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=170"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/daniellerousseau\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":171,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/daniellerousseau\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/170\/revisions\/171"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/daniellerousseau\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=170"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/daniellerousseau\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=170"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sites.bu.edu\/daniellerousseau\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=170"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}