Content Warning: This article contains references to gun violence.
Despite the proliferation of “thoughts and prayers,” the victims of school shootings in the United States remain scared and scarred. On Sept. 4, a 14-year-old student killed four people at Apalachee High School in Winder, Ga., about an hour north of Atlanta. Last week, students returned to Apalachee, which has taken on a new identity: a site of mourning. Counselors and police officers roamed the halls, and the section of the building where the shooting occurred was blocked off. Posters outside the high school read “Love will prevail.”
There have been over 50 school shootings in the United States this year, leaving 24 people dead and 66 injured. When school shootings occur, Democratic lawmakers often use the incidents to demonstrate the need for stricter gun laws while Republicans argue that we need more guns in schools to protect students. This debate diverts attention from victims grappling with trauma to the world of politics.
Sen. J.D. Vance (R-Ohio), former U.S. President Donald Trump’s running mate for the upcoming presidential election, said that shootings are a “fact of life” shortly after the tragedy at Apalachee. While substantial preventative reform is needed, this untimely rhetoric misdirects focus from caring for the large communities of victims that school shootings create. Survivors of school shootings are not pawns for political agendas. They are victims and must be seen and treated as such. America’s next generation of leaders is constantly grappling with the repercussions of violence and is always on guard for a potential threat around the corner. Instead of reducing the issue to a simple matter of gun control, we must focus our attention on the mental and physical well-being of students.
Shootings immensely traumatize entire communities, exacting long-lasting and pervasive psychological tolls on students, families and school staff — effects school administrators and teachers are still trying to rectify. Unfortunately, the lack of available mental health resources leaves not just students but entire communities fractured without necessary care, resulting in learning environments that feel callous and hostile.
Contributing to this hostility is the growing number of school resource officers (SROs) monitoring the halls of schools across the country. These officers are often brought in as a response to shootings, though in practice they are a band-aid solution to addressing student health and security. Barrow County School System, which encompasses Apalachee, has announced that it will hire two or more SROs for each high school, raising the total number of SROs across the county from 17 to 25. While on the surface having more SROs seems to create a more secure environment for students, this is far from reality. According to a 2023 study, SROs can reduce some violence, such as student fights, but do not prevent shootings. More notably, the presence of officers increased rates of suspension by 62% — disproportionately of Black students, boys and disabled students — thus creating the uneasiness and tense environments that can exacerbate the mental health challenges of vulnerable individuals.
Having more SROs does not make schools notably safer: It serves to worsen hallways with heightened surveillance, making students feel anxious and unsafe. Officers make up only one dimension of the school system’s failure to adequately support victims of school shootings and students more broadly. Shootings have profound psychological effects on students, even those in schools that are not directly subjected to gun violence. In the weeks since the Apalachee shooting, there have been over 700 students arrested for school shooting threats, with some being as young as 10 years old. The fact that these numbers have surged in recent weeks points to the effect that shootings have on the student psyche. When such violence becomes mainstream, it desensitizes students and normalizes threats of violence.
Students from Apalachee have been posting about their fears of returning to school on social media platforms, exemplifying the emotional toll of the trauma they experienced. In response, Barrow County invited National Center for School Crisis and Bereavement Director David Schonfeld to help students mitigate the pain accompanying their return.
Schonfeld trained mental health crisis teams to promote the social and emotional well-being of students. While this plan is sound, such teams should have been in place to begin with — before tragedy necessitated them. Georgia’s Project AWARE, which stands for Advancing Wellness and Resilience in Education, is the only statewide project promoting mental health and well-being in students, yet it is only implemented in three counties at a time. Mirroring this lack of resources is the severe shortage of school counselors in Georgia and nationwide. The American School Counselor Association recommends a ratio of one school counselor for every 250 students to adequately support all needs in times of stress. While the national average is 1:381, Georgia allows a 1:450 ratio to persist — nearly double the recommended number of students per counselor. The dangerous shortage of mental health resources for Georgia students exacerbates the long-term traumatic effects of school shootings.
If a school leans on increasing the number of SROs and hiring temporary crisis counseling teams to mitigate the effects of traumatic events, then any safety that students feel from their presence is compromised by the lack of resources to address the long-term psychological effects of shootings. Such lenient mental health policies must be addressed through legislative reform demanding services for the holistic well-being of school communities — not only in the wake of tragedy. Processing a violent incident takes time, and when schools lack the ability to help students get through the moments after a shooting, they can continue to suffer well after the shooting: untreated post-traumatic stress disorder can become a chronic condition.
Resource availability is not enough — schools must make an active effort to encourage and aid students seeking help. Furthermore, a study found that an overwhelming majority of 416 teachers, administrators and counselors are often unsure about the effectiveness of the trauma intervention policies in place in the event of a school shooting. Specifically, they disagreed on the adequacy of resources that faculty have to support students following such an event. Such data demonstrate the stark need for schools to have adequate long-term plans in place for not just students, but faculty as well.
School shootings are always unimaginably horrific. Students, faculty and first responders all face long-lasting emotional tolls. While it may seem like there is not much we can do to support the individuals impacted, there are ways we can help. Increasing pressure on school boards, which are composed of elected representatives in Georgia, and school administrations to allocate greater budgets toward counseling services would be crucial to communities' recovery. It’s vital to stay updated with new policies and local elections, as they allow residents to remain informed.
We need to vote for representatives who commit more than their thoughts and prayers and understand that public outrage demands a tangible, legislative change. Following the Apalachee tragedy, Sen. Raphael Warnock (D-Ga.) said on X that “We can’t pray only with our lips — we must pray by taking action.” Our thoughts and prayers are with the Apalachee community, but it is imperative that our actions reflect this sentiment as well.
If you or someone you know is struggling in the aftermath of gun violence, you can reach Emory’s Counseling and Psychological Services at (404) 727-7450 or https://counseling.emory.edu/ or the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration Disaster Distress hotline 24/7 at +1 (800) 985-5990.
The above editorial represents the majority opinion of The Emory Wheel’s Editorial Board. The Editorial Board is composed of Editor Marc Goedemans, Carly Aikens, Hunter Buchheit, Allie Guo, Ethan Jacobs, Carson Kindred, Justin Leach, Eliana Liporace, Niki Rajani, Josh Rosenblut, Ilka Tona and Crystal Zhang.
