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Triggered: When Trauma Calls
The Denver Metro area was rocked this week as our schools were shut down due to an alert the FBI put out that there was a “credible threat” to our schools. Just days before the 20th anniversary of the Columbine Massacre, schools in the area in and around Columbine were on lockout as a massive manhunt was underway.
As a mother with a child enrolled in a school just two and a half miles from Columbine, my first thoughts went to my child and a concern for her safety. Because the threat was “non-specific,” it could have meant anything. It could have meant that the suspect was nearby or nowhere close.
I mourned that this is our current reality—this wasn’t our first lockout since my daughter started school seven years ago. She was in elementary school when the Arapahoe High School shooting happened just a mile away. Heck, this wasn’t our first lockout this school year.
When my child returned safely home, I hugged her tightly and my thoughts turned to the survivors of the Columbine shooting and how triggering this event had to be for them. I was filled with mixed feelings all evening. Although we were at a friend’s house saying goodbye to their foreign exchange student, the evening turned somber as we talked about the situation at hand and discussed how we would handle the following day if school wasn’t canceled.
