GERMANTOWN – Counselors will be on hand in Germantown schools following a deadly police shooting at Kennedy Middle School on Monday night.
It doesn’t take much for someone to be impacted by trauma, according to mental health expert Kate Stocks.
“It could be traumatic for some children, and for some others it could be nothing,” Stocks told WTMJ N.O.W. on Wednesday. “It’s a very individual process.”
Stocks knows something about trauma. She attended Wauwatosa West High School when assistant principal Dale Breitlow was shot and killed by a former student in 1993.
“The school becomes a home away from home. It’s a place you expect to be safe. When things do not go as planned, it leaves a mark,” she explained. “There were other students who suffered far more trauma than I did.”
In light of what happened in Germantown, Stocks urged parents to talk to their children about the incident.
At times, children can have trouble verbalizing things, according to Stocks.
“Trauma impacts the body. It has emotional, physical affects on a person,” she said. “What just happened? What did they see? What did they hear? What’s happening (to the student) physically, emotionally, and biologically?”
