Support for the Survivors

 

Of the different survivors' stories covered in your Chapter 9 reading, whose stood out the most to you and why? 

Each one of these stories was shocking and heartbreaking to me in different ways. Reading about how so many people had such different reactions to the same experiences was fascinating and caused me to ponder what my own reaction to this type of fear would be. Would I be as brave as Frank DeAngelis, the principal of Columbine, who was willing to sacrifice himself for the safety of students. Or, will I be paralysied with fear and freeze. I will never know what I would do in this situation, but I commend those survivors who took action and survived one of the scariest experiences I can imagine. Frank DeAngelis was probably one of the stories that stood out to me the most. Not many people are willing to do anything close to like what he did on that day. DeAngelis ran towards the shooters instead of away, which is a direct contradiction to the human instinct. And thankfully was successful in saving the lives of those girls.

 I feel as though I should also mention Monica’s story because it was just as shocking to me when I was reading it. Monica was a student who happened to teach soccer with Shooter H. On the day of the Columbine shooting, Monica was running for safety when she encountered Shooter H. What was truly heartbreaking to read was the taunting Monica received from Shooter H before he fired at her while she ran for safety. Monica received a lot of backlash for being friends with the shooters, which only made me feel more for her. She had to live through an incredibly scary experience. And then, after surviving it and discovering the death or harm of her other friends, she was berated.  

As a society, how do you think that we can better support survivors of mass shootings? 

As much as I feel like sentiments are a nice thoughtful sign to express love to the survivors of mass shootings, I feel as though we can always do more for them. These survivors will forever be changed and have to carry this tragedy with them for the rest of their lives. Which is why I think providing the survivors with free therapy sessions is the least our society can do for them. That way they will have no financial obstacles between them and receive the proper mental health support to help them cope with what they lived through. The most important thing I feel the public can do is advocate for the survivors of mass shootings. Fight to provide them with free mental health support. Protest and vote to change gun laws in America. Donate to families and the survivors who may have lost someone in order to help pay for funeral funds. There are so many methods of support that only our government can provide, which is why speaking out and pushing for the government to provide that support is one of the best ways we can support the survivors.