Dubai Telegraph - US parents' dilemma: how to discuss school shootings without scaring kids

EUR -
AED 3.938479
AFN 73.284283
ALL 98.19234
AMD 417.267449
ANG 1.943348
AOA 978.447316
ARS 1071.53141
AUD 1.629089
AWG 1.930079
AZN 1.82711
BAM 1.955647
BBD 2.17713
BDT 128.849948
BGN 1.9562
BHD 0.406468
BIF 3183.551653
BMD 1.072266
BND 1.425189
BOB 7.467417
BRL 6.152562
BSD 1.078316
BTN 90.972903
BWP 14.300884
BYN 3.528725
BYR 21016.42052
BZD 2.17343
CAD 1.49386
CDF 3073.115756
CHF 0.939162
CLF 0.03726
CLP 1028.119797
CNY 7.698019
CNH 7.63378
COP 4640.937963
CRC 551.556973
CUC 1.072266
CUP 28.415058
CVE 110.256399
CZK 25.259812
DJF 192.015021
DKK 7.459869
DOP 64.934934
DZD 142.958848
EGP 52.835878
ERN 16.083995
ETB 133.503285
FJD 2.399951
FKP 0.820465
GBP 0.830088
GEL 2.916983
GGP 0.820465
GHS 17.683621
GIP 0.820465
GMD 76.671173
GNF 9295.27488
GTQ 8.33535
GYD 225.592402
HKD 8.336174
HNL 27.205878
HRK 7.386875
HTG 141.888931
HUF 407.236454
IDR 16786.168917
ILS 4.020796
IMP 0.820465
INR 90.481213
IQD 1412.489812
IRR 45134.375558
ISK 148.766647
JEP 0.820465
JMD 171.076654
JOD 0.760348
JPY 163.686863
KES 139.08915
KGS 92.433433
KHR 4378.658423
KMF 493.644665
KPW 965.039476
KRW 1499.246878
KWD 0.328832
KYD 0.89853
KZT 530.808592
LAK 23665.153893
LBP 96559.167469
LKR 315.465391
LRD 204.33406
LSL 18.869628
LTL 3.166124
LVL 0.648604
LYD 5.232592
MAD 10.648369
MDL 19.338491
MGA 4988.610841
MKD 61.5252
MMK 3482.679288
MNT 3643.561097
MOP 8.633826
MRU 42.957649
MUR 49.75717
MVR 16.566921
MWK 1869.754141
MXN 21.634265
MYR 4.699212
MZN 68.521819
NAD 18.869628
NGN 1788.626462
NIO 39.676905
NOK 11.794827
NPR 145.556645
NZD 1.797446
OMR 0.412628
PAB 1.078316
PEN 4.044584
PGK 4.328662
PHP 62.679371
PKR 299.424042
PLN 4.325898
PYG 8431.342275
QAR 3.931893
RON 4.977143
RSD 116.980874
RUB 104.99181
RWF 1478.084695
SAR 4.02742
SBD 8.943509
SCR 14.390377
SDG 644.972153
SEK 11.594849
SGD 1.4214
SHP 0.820465
SLE 24.501684
SLL 22484.885861
SOS 616.251927
SRD 37.497551
STD 22193.748611
SVC 9.435264
SYP 2694.101668
SZL 18.864528
THB 36.687634
TJS 11.462006
TMT 3.763655
TND 3.347839
TOP 2.511359
TRY 36.822021
TTD 7.327428
TWD 34.580984
TZS 2878.975413
UAH 44.514627
UGX 3946.692121
USD 1.072266
UYU 45.046486
UZS 13787.924411
VEF 3884341.194834
VES 47.874003
VND 27101.532073
VUV 127.301648
WST 3.003615
XAF 655.905833
XAG 0.031788
XAU 0.000394
XCD 2.897854
XDR 0.808437
XOF 655.905833
XPF 119.331742
YER 267.878982
ZAR 19.79817
ZMK 9651.687743
ZMW 29.35571
ZWL 345.269328
  • RBGPF

    61.4000

    61.4

    +100%

  • JRI

    0.1600

    13.53

    +1.18%

  • RELX

    0.3200

    47.98

    +0.67%

  • SCS

    0.0600

    13.14

    +0.46%

  • BCC

    1.4700

    142.32

    +1.03%

  • NGG

    -0.3600

    63.94

    -0.56%

  • CMSC

    0.1600

    24.84

    +0.64%

  • RYCEF

    0.0100

    7.15

    +0.14%

  • RIO

    -3.0400

    64.43

    -4.72%

  • GSK

    -0.3700

    36.29

    -1.02%

  • VOD

    -0.0100

    9.31

    -0.11%

  • AZN

    -0.2000

    64.49

    -0.31%

  • BTI

    -0.0100

    35.39

    -0.03%

  • CMSD

    0.2350

    25.125

    +0.94%

  • BCE

    0.3000

    28.37

    +1.06%

  • BP

    -0.8800

    28.93

    -3.04%

US parents' dilemma: how to discuss school shootings without scaring kids
US parents' dilemma: how to discuss school shootings without scaring kids / Photo: Brendan SMIALOWSKI - AFP

US parents' dilemma: how to discuss school shootings without scaring kids

When Elizabeth Barese picked up her 11-year-old son from school on Monday, she knew she had to tell him that a shooting had happened the same day at the school neighboring their family home in Nashville.

Text size:

"We're right next door and there was a police presence," the 47-year-old told AFP. "I had to address it right away with him."

Standing in front of the crosses erected outside the entrance to The Covenant School bearing the names of the six victims, three of them young children, Barese said: "It's not a conversation you want to have with your kids."

"It's a delicate balance of being honest with your kids and not scaring them."

The same dilemma is being faced by countless American parents in the face of yet another school shooting to rock the country, leaving them needing to comfort their children, all the while reeling from their own anguish and fear.

Gun violence is a constant in the United States, a country of about 330 million people awash with more than 400 million guns.

Schools have not been spared, with assaults on educational institutions strikingly common.

Since the Columbine High School massacre in 1999, there have been 376 school shootings across the country, according to data gathered by The Washington Post, with 199 people killed and 424 injured. All told, the data shows more than 348,000 students exposed to gun violence at their school.

For US parents, those growing numbers mean a persistent worry that their children's school could be next.

A 2022 Pew Research Center survey found that roughly a third of parents of school-aged children said they were "very or extremely" worried.

After the shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, that left 21 people dead, Barese said she wrote a post on social media reading, "I don't know when the next one is going to happen but I hope to God it's not Nashville."

"But I know there's going to be another one."

- 'Why did kids get killed?' -

Xsavier Cleary, who lives some 30 miles (50 kilometers) from the Covenant elementary school, came to pay his respects with his own kids' safety on his mind.

"We just wonder now, are our kids still safe in schools?" he said.

On Monday, he said his children, aged from three to 22, could not escape talk of the shooting, in which a 28-year-old heavily armed shooter broke into the small private Christian school and killed six people -- three staff and three students.

"The kids was like, 'Dad, they're talking about the shooting everywhere, the radio, the school, the news, the TV... why did kids get killed?'" he said.

"We never thought we'd have to talk to our kids about things like this at this age," he said, shaking his head.

"They're in elementary school and we have to tell them about what to do and prepare for, if something like this happens."

Shooting drills have proliferated at schools in the United States, such as one Barese witnessed at her child's school.

"It made me cry," she said, her voice cracking with emotion.

After the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012, in which 20 children and six adults were killed, her then-three-year-old daughter's preschool began active shooter drills -- a fact that made her "want to throw up," she said.

- 'Reassure' -

But Barese, who has called Tennessee home for 18 years, said she's grateful for the advice her son's school offered on how to broach Monday's tragedy.

"They didn't want the kids talking to their friends. They wanted the information to come from the parents. They wanted the information to be honest, and to not give more information than was needed," she said.

Following the guidance, she answered her children's questions, but watched the news in another room.

US psychologists have for years provided resources to help parents deal with these discussions.

The National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) put tips online for parents and teachers on talking to children about violence, including in schools.

Number one on the list: "Reassure children that they are safe. Emphasize that schools are very safe," underlining the difference between the "possibility" of something happening and its "probability."

That is easier said than done, said another mother, who didn't want to give her name and works at the hospital where some of the Covenant School victims were brought.

"You want to assure them that they're safe," she said, tears in her eyes. "We're saying those words but we don't believe them."

J.Alaqanone--DT