Atlanta School Shooting Response

By Wendy Dickinson, Ph.D.           

After hearing the horrific news of the school shooting in Atlanta at Ronald E. McNair Discovery Learning Academy, we are left with questions of “Why?” and “How can I explain this to my children?” Because we work with, live with and see the parents, neighbors, and siblings of those affected, we are bound to have questions that can help us process this tragedy.

It is important to remember children process and understand events very differently based on their developmental age and certainly much differently than adults do. This is the reason you are selective in the movies or songs you allow your children to watch or listen to. You offer them the reality of our world in small pieces so they can better process and understand it based on their age. The information and details of the shooting can be thought of in the same way. The details of what happened at the school today would be rated R if it were a movie and are extremely overwhelming to a child, teenagers, and even adults.

As we support our community and begin to process todays’ incident, we can process this event together. We at GROW want you to know that we are here for you in your time of need and we can help you and your family work through understanding the news today.

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