NEWPORT NEWS, Va. — Trouble sleeping, survivor's guilt and signs of post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) are among the psychological responses from several children and adults touched by last year's shooting at Richneck Elementary School.
A special grand jury report made public last Wednesday details the trauma some families live with today.
13News Now spoke with a licensed professional counselor who wants people to know they're not alone and that it's OK to ask for help if you need it.
"It doesn't matter how long ago something happened. If it was traumatic to a child, their body is still going to respond to triggers, to any information," said Clinical Director and Vice President of Behavioral Health with Newport News-based Center for Child and Family Services Darla Timberlake.
A special grand jury made up of 11 people who live in Newport News spent months investigating the 2023 shooting at Richneck Elementary School.
A 6-year-old boy intentionally shot his first-grade teacher Abby Zwerner in front of the class on January 6 of last year.
Part of the grand jury's report outlines how a boy at the school slept in his parents' room for nearly a year "so he could feel safe."
At a news conference last Thursday, Newport News Commonwealth's Attorney Howard Gwynn pointed to one specific account about a friend who reportedly saw the child's gun prior to the shooting and told an adult earlier that day.
"That friend [...] feels guilty today because no one listened to him," said Gwynn.
In another account, a girl who witnessed the shooting shows signs of PTSD. The grand jury also found another boy who was in Zwerner's classroom fears the shooter will come back and hurt him.
"They are perfectly normal feelings for an abnormal situation that happened," said Timberlake. "A lot of kids are feeling this, a lot of adults are feeling this. Normalize their feelings. Help them identify them and they get them out in healthy ways."
Those ways can come in the form of one-on-one conversations, through drawing or doing a fun activity like blowing bubbles, which Timberlake suggested as mechanisms for parents to create safe spaces for children.
Some will open up on their own, Timberlake said. However, it all depends on your child. "It's different for every child, but if you think they're hearing about it, I would initiate it," she said.
Timberlake also pointed out how the psychological responses produced by the children and their families are normal, especially when considering the reactions of victims in other instances of gun violence.
"We've been seeing a lot of that before Richneck, absolutely. We have seen kids, young kids come in, talk about 'I'm scared to go to school.' And this was before Richneck, 'I'm worried about a shooter,'" said Timberlake.
The special grand jury pulled back the curtain on how some former Richneck parents feel on the heels of the shooting. At least two mothers and their children are in counseling.
A grandmother on campus during the shooting who rendered first aid to Zwerner "to this day struggles with being able to sleep," according to the grand jury's probe.
Refusal of school transfers in almost all cases also added both heartache and financial worries, the grand jury also wrote.
"Reach out for your own counseling or family counseling if this is really affecting you or your family as a family system," said Timberlake.
She said her agency Center for Child and Family Services in Newport News offers free services to certain Hampton and Newport News families, thanks to grant-funded programs.
Additionally, Timberlake mentioned a grant allowing CCFS to provide free services for Virginian children who have witnessed or experienced trauma or abuse in their lifetime.