In a front page article entitled “School Shootings Leave a Long Trail of Trauma” the New York Times (Front Page: March 29, 2019) explores the lingering trauma to survivors of school shootings.
On April 6, 2019, the Editor of the New York Times printed the following letter that I wrote in response to the article.:
As a Marriage Family therapist who has treated trauma survivors and as a survivor of a mass shooting myself, I think we miss an important factor in helping the survivors of school shootings. How can they heal when they do not feel protected by those in charge of their country?
In May 1945, when I was seven years old, my mother and I were on the Dam Square in Amsterdam celebrating the liberation of our city, when German soldiers opened fire and more than 30 people were shot to death. I was able to heal from the trauma, in part, because the Allies arrived and took charge. But in 2017 television images showing torch-bearing neo-Nazis with swastikas in Charlottesville, VA., triggered old fears. Memories resurfaced of gunshots, of running for safety as people screamed and fell bleeding to the ground, and suddenly I wanted the presence of the Allies who conquered the Nazis and made a 7-year-old Dutch school child feel safe again.
Who are the Allies for America’s children today? Where are the liberators who will remove the guns and make today’s American schoolchildren feel safe?
Hendrika de Vries