There was a lot of flight time for the cast of Top Gun: Maverick, which opened on select IMAX screens Tuesday and will hit all theaters on Friday. Monica Barbaro plays one of the new fighter pilots, call sign Phoenix, and she tells ABC Audio she was a little nervous at first to go up in the military jets. But now?
“I love flying,” she shares. “Getting to be in the sky was, it became like actually, as intense as it all was, it became actually quite peaceful in the moments between takes and the moments between training.”
Thanks to training, Barbaro says that “depending on the plane” she might be able to step in if there was ever a pilot emergency.
“Obviously, a commercial airliner, a lot of bells and whistles that are quite complicated,” she notes, adding, “A Cessna, I can fly. I can fly a Cessna…But obviously in an emergency situation…If there were no licensed pilots on that plane, I would be the closest thing to it.”
In the future Barbaro might be able to go bigger than a Cessna thanks to co-star Tom Cruise, who she reveals “gifted us a lifetime membership to basic ground school.”
Learning to fly wasn’t the only training for Barbaro, who says the biggest challenge was the underwater training they had to go through in case they had to eject over the ocean. She recalls “almost panicking” before following through with everything and coming out just fine on the other side.
“I never felt happier in my whole life,” she says.
Ever since Kelly Clarkson started doing fan-voted cover songs in her live shows, people have asked for her to release those covers. The call intensified after Kelly made cover songs, aka “Kellyoke,” a daily feature of her talk show. In other words, we’ve been waiting a lifetime for a moment like this — and now we’re finally getting it.
Kelly has announced that a six-song EP titled Kellyoke will arrive June 9. It’ll feature Kelly’s takes on Linda Ronstadt‘s “Blue Bayou,” The Weeknd‘s “Call Out My Name,” Radiohead‘s “Fake Plastic Trees,” Whitney Houston‘s “Queen of the Night” and Billie Eilish‘s “Happier Than Ever,” the latter of which is out now on all digital platforms.
Kelly originally performed “Happier Than Ever” on her show September 30 of last year. In this studio version, she definitely does not shy away from the profanity in the song.
“Music is in the DNA of everything I do, so when The Kelly Clarkson Show started we knew it was the perfect way to kick off every episode,” Kelly says in a statement. “Over 500 songs later, and we’re still not running out of amazing artists to pay tribute to. Picking just six was near-impossible, but these songs have been some of my favorites. Thanks for singing along with me, y’all!”
Taylor Swift, Olivia Rodrigo and Selena Gomez are among the celebrities who took to social media to express their grief, shock and outrage over the mass shooting at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas on Tuesday that left 19 children and two adults dead.
On Twitter, Taylor posted a video of Golden State Warriors coach Steve Kerr making an impassioned plea for gun control. “I’m so tired of getting up here and offering condolences to the devastated families that are out there…I’m tired of the moments of silence. Enough,” said an emotional Kerr.
Taylor captioned the video, “Filled with rage and grief, and so broken by the murders in Uvalde. By Buffalo, Laguna Woods and so many others. By the ways in which we, as a nation, have become conditioned to unfathomable and unbearable heartbreak. Steve’s words ring so true and cut so deep.”
Taylor’s friend Selena Gomez, a Texas native, wrote on Twitter, “Today in my home state of Texas 18 innocent students were killed while simply trying to get an education. A teacher killed doing her job; an invaluable yet sadly under appreciated job. If children aren’t safe at school where are they safe?”
Including a link to the Everytown for Gun Safety Action Fund, Selena added, “It’s so frustrating and I’m not sure what to say anymore. Those in power need to stop giving lip service and actually change the laws to prevent these shootings in the future.”
And at her concert in LA on Tuesday night, Olivia Rodrigo told the audience she was “devastated” about the shooting, and added, “We should never have to worry about our safety or our lives at places that are dedicated to our learning and growing. And I’m so heartbroken that this is the reality that we’re living in — and we need stricter gun control laws in America.” The audience cheered her remarks.
Matthew McConaughey is speaking out following Tuesday’s horrific mass shooting at an elementary school in the actor’s Texas hometown of Uvalde that left 19 children and two adults dead.
“As you all are aware there was another mass shooting today, this time in my home town of Uvalde, Texas,” McConaughey wrote in a message on social media. “Once again, we have tragically proven that we are failing to be responsible for the rights our freedoms grant us.”
He went on to call for action and asked Americans to not “make excuses” and to not “accept these tragic realities as the status quo.”
“As Americans, Texans, mothers and fathers, it’s time we re-evaluate, and renegotiate our wants from our needs,” he wrote. “We have to rearrange our values and find a common ground above this devastating American reality that has tragically become our children’s issue.”
McConaughey continued, “This is an epidemic we can control, and whichever side of the aisle we may stand on, we all know we can do better. We must do better. Action must be taken so that no parent has to experience what the parents in Uvalde and the others before them have endured.”
The shooting took place at Robb Elementary School. The 18-year-old suspect, identified by law enforcement sources and Gov. Greg Abbott as Salvador Ramosa, a student at Uvalde High School, is also dead.
CBS pulled Tuesday night’s season four finale of FBI in light of the shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, that claimed the lives of 19 students, two teachers and the alleged gunman earlier in the day. The episode has been pulled due to the fact that the storyline concerned a school shooting, according to Variety. The episode’s official synopsis reads, “As the team investigates a deadly robbery that garnered a cache of automatic weapons for the killers, they discover one of the perps is a classmate of Jubal’s son, who is reluctant to cooperate with the case.” FBI aired a repeat in the finale’s place. A new airdate for the finale has yet to be announced…
Samuel L. Jackson has been tapped to star alongside Chris Pratt in a new animated Garfield film, according to Deadline. The film is based on Jim Davis’ titular lazy comic strip cat and his interactions with his owner, Jon Arbuckle, along with his fellow pet, Odie the dog. Jackson will reportedly play a brand-new character, Garfield’s father, Vic. This will mark the third time Garfield has been brought to the big screen. Bill Murray previously voiced the character in 2004’s Garfield and 2006’s Garfield: A Tale of Two Kitties, both of which were a combination of live-action and animation…
The Bachelorette star Tayshia Adams is set to host the 2022 MTV Movie & TV Awards: Unscripted, according to Variety. The show will take place live at the Barker Hangar on Sunday, June 5, at 10 p.m. ET. This year, the MTV Movie & TV Awards and the Unscripted show will air back-to-back and simulcast across BET, BET Her, CMT, Comedy Central, Logo, MTV2, Nick at Nite, Paramount Network, Pop, TV Land and VH1. Before the Unscripted awards, Vanessa Hudgens will host the 2022 MTV Movie & TV Awards. The tick, tick…BOOM! star previously hosted the MTV Movie & TV Awards: Greatest of All Time special in 2020…
(UVALDE, Texas) — A small town in rural Texas is reeling after a gunman opened fire at an elementary school on Tuesday, killing 19 children.
Two teachers were also among those killed at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, authorities said.
Prior to opening fire at the school, the suspect also allegedly shot his grandmother, authorities said.
The suspect — identified by officials as 18-year-old Salvador Ramos, a student at Uvalde High School — is dead.
Here’s how the news is developing. All times Eastern:
May 25, 8:43 am
Shooter purchased two rifles within eight days of turning 18 this month
Salvador Ramos, the suspect in the Robb Elementary School shooting, after turning 18 on May 16, purchased two rifles and carried out the second-worst school shooting in U.S. history within the span of eight days, according to multiple law enforcement officials.
The suspect purchased two AR-15-style rifles on May 22, two days before the massacre and six days after his birthday, multiple law enforcement officials told ABC News. They were legal purchases.
Once the shooter made entry into a classroom he barricaded himself and opened fire, according to the sources.
Officers from the Uvalde Police Department and agents from Customs and Border Protection entered into the classroom and immediately took fire from the gunman before they shot and killed him.
Investigators are going through the ballistics to determine who fired the fatal shot.
May 25, 6:46 am
Ukrainian president offers condolences to families of the victims
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy offered his condolences to the families of the victims of the shooting on Twitter.
“Deeply saddened by the news of the murder of innocent children in Texas. Sincere condolences to the families of the victims, the people of the US and @POTUS over this tragedy,” Zelenskyy said in a tweet.
Zelenskyy added: “The people of Ukraine share the pain of the relatives and friends of the victims and all Americans.”
May 25, 5:24 am
Matthew McConaughey calls for action after shooting
Actor Matthew McConaughey decried the shooting in his hometown of Uvalde, Texas.
“We have tragically proven that we are failing to be responsible for the rights our freedoms grant us,” he wrote in a statement on Twitter.
“We cannot exhale once again, make excuses, and accept these tragic realities as the status quo,” he said.
May 25, 4:55 am
Amanda Gorman pens poem about shooting
The 24-year-old National Youth Poet Laureate took to Twitter following the tragedy to share a poem.
Schools scared to death.
The truth is, one education under desks,
Stooped low from bullets;
That plunge when we ask
Where our children
Shall live
& how
& if
She also posted a series of tweets on gun violence.
“It takes a monster to kill children,” she wrote. “But to watch monsters kill children again and again and do nothing isn’t just insanity — it’s inhumanity.”
May 25, 4:55 am
Biden addresses ‘horrific’ mass shooting
President Joe Biden addressed the nation Tuesday night following the mass shooting in Texas — not even two weeks after he mourned victims of the mass shooting in Buffalo, New York.
“I’d hoped, when I became president, I would not have to do this again,” Biden said. “Another massacre. Uvalde, Texas. An elementary school. Beautiful, second-, third-, fourth-graders.”
“As a nation, we have to ask when in God’s name are we going to stand up to the gun lobby,” he said. “I am sick and tired of it — we have to act.”
May 25, 4:55 am
Connecticut Sen. Chris Murphy pleads with lawmakers after shooting
Connecticut Democrat Chris Murphy gave an impassioned argument on the Senate floor to his colleagues late Tuesday afternoon, hours after 21 were killed in the mass shooting.
“What are we doing?” Murphy asked the chamber. “There have been more mass shootings than days in the year.”
“Our kids are living in fear every single time they set foot in the classroom because they think they’re going to be next. What are we doing?” he asked.
Sen. Chris Murphy delivers remarks on Uvalde, Texas elementary school shooting: “What are we doing? What are we doing?…This only happens in this country and nowhere else. Nowhere else do little kids go to school thinking that they might be shot that day.” https://t.co/Zh3OvUaIwmpic.twitter.com/TjJVoaFbRN
May 25, 4:55 am
What we know about the shooting so far
At least 21 people are dead after a gunman opened fire in Uvalde on Tuesday, authorities said.
Most of the victims were children in their last week of school before the summer break. Many other students and adults were injured in the mass shooting.
To quote Darth Vader, Friday “will be a day long remembered” by Star Wars fans, with the two-episode debut of Obi-Wan Kenobion Disney+.
“We’re very close. It’s very exciting,” director Deborah Chow tells ABC Audio. “You know, I’ve been working on this for three years to sort of finally be at this point of it coming out, it’s incredibly exciting.”
“And honestly, they’ll just be nice to be able to talk about it openly for once!” TheMandalorian veteran added with a laugh.
Moses Ingram plays a new character called Reva [REE-vah], one of the fearsome Inquisitors tapped by Vader to hunt down the remaining Jedi, like Ewan McGregor‘s titular character, after the events of Star Wars: Episode III – Revenge of the Sith.
Moses is also feeling the relief of not having to keep any more spoilers. “And that’s going to feel really good, too!” she laughs.
“It’s hard, you know…I was really good about keeping it from my people. And so a lot of my friends…have been, ‘I mean, I knew you were in Star Wars, but I didn’t know you were like in Star Wars. I thought. I thought maybe…you’d…have a walk-on or something like that, but. Wow!'”
Moses adds with a laugh, “It’s like ‘Wow…you give me no credit whatsoever.'”
She says of her newfound Star Wars fame, “It’s been a whirlwind.”
“I mean, it’s so crazy….and people are going to see it in a matter of days now, which is just blowing my mind the closer we get to it.”
The series also stars Star Wars prequel stars Hayden Christensen, Bonnie Piesse, and Joel Edgerton, as well as Eternals alumni Kumail Nanjiani.
Star Wars is a property of Disney, parent company of ABC News.
(NEW YORK) — Current COVID-19 cases are just a fraction of what they were at the peak of the omicron wave.
But many people in the country may be noticing what seems to be a flood of cases in their social circles.
Health experts say this anecdotal evidence may not be simply coincidence, as the U.S. may be in a “hidden” wave — one much larger than reported data would suggest.
“There’s a lot of COVID out there. I see it in my social circles, in my kids’ schools and in the hospital employee infection numbers,” Dr. Shira Doron, an infectious disease physician and hospital epidemiologist at Tufts Medical Center in Boston, told ABC News. “We are clearly in a wave.”
Although it is clear that infection rates have been steadily rising in recent weeks to their highest reported level since mid-February, scientists acknowledge that it is difficult to know how high COVID-19 case and even hospitalization numbers truly are, given the likely “substantially” undercounting of infections.
This is due in part to changes in data collection and reporting and the proliferation of at-home tests. Some state officials report that health departments and healthcare facilities have also ended traditional tracking of COVID-19 patients, which epidemiologists say make it more difficult to know how many patients are coming into hospitals in need of care.
Last month, former Food and Drug Administration Commissioner Dr. Scott Gottlieb estimated that officials were likely only picking up “one in seven or one in eight” infections.
And President Joe Biden’s new coronavirus response coordinator, Dr. Ashish Jha, acknowledged that there are “a lot of infections” last week, likely the result of highly infectious omicron subvariants spreading across the country.
“We know that the number of infections is actually substantially higher than that. It’s hard to know exactly how many but we know that a lot of people are getting diagnosed using home tests,” Jha explained.
More than 100,000 Americans officially testing positive every day
The nation’s reported daily case average, which officials say consists largely of PCR tests, now stands at more than 100,000 new cases reported a day, according to data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC).
In recent weeks, nearly every state in the country has reported an increase in COVID-19 infections and the number of virus-positive people who are admitted to the hospital.
The Northeast remains the nation’s most notable known COVID-19 hotspot, though surges in some cities, like Boston, appear to be showing initial signs of slowing.
Nationally, according to the CDC’s community levels, more than 45% of Americans live in an area with a medium or high COVID-19 risk.
The high community level suggests there is a “high potential for healthcare system strain” and a “high level of severe disease,” and thus, the CDC recommends that people wear a mask in public indoor settings, including schools.
Hospitalization numbers have been increasing in recent weeks, but not at a rate as significant as infections.
However, over the course of the spring and winter, hospitalization data, too, has become less accessible, leading some experts to suggest patient totals could also be undercounted.
Earlier this year, the Department of Health and Human Services ended the requirement for hospitals to report several key COVID-19 metrics, including a daily total of the number of COVID-19 deaths, the number of emergency department overflow and ventilated patients and information on critical staffing shortages.
Further, certain states have stopped outright reporting of statistics including hospital bed usage and availability, COVID-19 specific hospital metrics and ventilator use.
However, Doron said a possible significant surge in infections, without an overwhelming number of hospitalized COVID-19 patients, could be a promising sign.
“If cases are really a lot higher than what we are seeing, it means the ratio of hospitalizations to cases and deaths to cases is even lower than what we are seeing, and we are already seeing a ‘decoupling’ between cases and hospitalizations and deaths,” Doron said, which could indicate the virus is moving closer to a form that Americans can live with.
Even so, Doron added, “at a population level, however, COVID poses more risk because there are so many cases, and hospitals are already so full with both COVID and non-COVID patients.”
A shift away from traditional testing
In recent months, states from coast to coast, have moved to shutter public testing sites, with an abundance of rapid COVID-19 tests now available in pharmacies and through the federal government.
“While home testing has created broader population access to infection status and hopefully better access to treatment, it has also created a major blind spot in our public health surveillance efforts,” John Brownstein, Ph.D., an epidemiologist at Boston Children’s Hospital and an ABC News contributor, said. “The latest BA.2 surge was masked by the shift in testing behavior and likely delayed decisions on public health interventions.”
The shift away from traditional COVID-19 testing has left some health experts worried about continued issues of access to adequate healthcare and preventative health tools, such as testing and antiviral treatments, to protect vulnerable communities.
According to ABC News’ analysis last summer of pharmacy locations across the country, there are 150 counties where there is no pharmacy, and nearly 4.8 million people live in a county where there’s only one pharmacy for every 10,000 residents or more.
“What concerns me even more is what might be happening in communities and among families with fewer resources. Public testing sites have closed, home tests are expensive at the drugstore, and navigating the system to order free tests or get tests reimbursed by insurance requires literacy and technology,” Doron said.
Broader insights on infection through home testing and wastewater sampling will be critical in the future to fully understand the scope of surges and protect all Americans, Brownstein said.
Virus not disappearing in low-transmission counties
This winter, following the omicron surge, the CDC released a new risk level map, which shifted away from focusing on the level of transmission within a community, and rather shifted the attention to hospital capacity and admission levels.
The rollout of the new map, which aims to help people and local officials assess when to implement potential mitigation measures, caused controversy among some Americans, explained Doron. While some people argued the shift in metrics was long overdue and a sign of the times, others said the move was premature.
“Some people were happy because they felt that we were beyond the time period in which we needed to reimpose restrictions and mandates every time cases increased, given widespread population immunity from vaccination and infection,” Doron said. “It made other people angry because a transition to a medium or high-risk status now requires increases in hospitalizations, which are lagging indicators, in other words there can be a lot of cases before hospitals get full, and some people might choose to take extra precautions sooner.”
Brownstein noted that given the shift away from transmission rates, some Americans may not be fully aware of the continued dangers of the virus, as a green county is not necessarily indicative of the virus simply disappearing.
“While the CDC map reflects decreased risk of severe complications from COVID infection, it unfortunately hides places with high community transmission,” Brownstein said. “This masking of risk may provide a false sense of security especially to those at high risk of hospitalization and death.”
(NEW YORK) — Cherelle Griner, the wife of WNBA superstar Brittney Griner, who has been detained in a Russian prison for nearly 100 days, spoke on Tuesday in an interview with ABC News’ Good Morning America.
Griner told GMA co-anchor Robin Roberts that the support her wife has gotten from the league has brought the WNBA star “comfort” amid her detention in Russia.
The WNBA, which kicked off its 2022 season on May 6, is honoring Griner with a floor decal bearing her initials and jersey number (42) on the sideline of all 12 WNBA teams.
“Things like that matter, like, it has her hopeful,” Cherelle Griner told Roberts. “It lets her know she’s not forgotten.”
“Those small moments, I know, give her some type of hope,” she added.
Brittney Griner, a two-time Olympic gold medalist who plays for the Phoenix Mercury, was visiting Russia in February to play basketball during the off-season when she was arrested at Sheremetyevo International Airport near Moscow for allegedly having vape cartridges in her luggage that contained hashish oil — an illegal substance in Russia.
She was charged with “large-scale transportation of drugs” and could face up to 10 years in prison, according to The New York Times.
Cherelle Griner said that her wife texted her when she was first taken into custody, but Brittney’s phone was taken soon after.
She has not spoken with her for nearly 100 days, but they’ve communicated “sporadically” through letters, Cherelle Griner said.
“[Brittney] wrote me one letter and was like, ‘Babe, I know you wanna go down right now but like, don’t just yet,'” she said.
“I won’t go down until she’s back … Every single day matters for me to be sound, for me to be alert, for me to be attentive, to make sure that she comes back,” she added.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine began one week after Griner was detained on Feb. 17. Some officials are concerned that Americans jailed in Russia could be used as leverage in the ongoing conflict.
State Department spokesperson Ned Price said Friday that a U.S. consular officer was able to meet with Griner on Thursday, May 19, for the second time in a week.
Price said the official “found her continuing to do as well as could be expected under these exceedingly challenging circumstances.”
“But again, our message is a clear and simple one — we continue to insist that Russia allow consistent and timely consular access to all U.S. citizen detainees,” he added. “One-off visits are not sufficient, and we will continue to call on Moscow to uphold its commitments under the Vienna Convention for consistent and timely access, as well.”
Price said that he spoke with Cherelle Griner earlier this month by phone, assuring her that the administration was doing everything it could to ensure the WNBA player’s release.
Cherelle Griner said that she also spoke with Secretary of State Anthony Blinken and was “grateful” for the call.
“You say she’s top priority, but I wanna see it, and I feel like to see it would be me seeing BG on U.S. soil,” she said.
Calls to free Brittney Griner escalated following the release of U.S. Marine veteran Trevor Reed last month, who was freed from a Russian prison as part of a prisoner exchange. Former Marine Paul Whelan has also been detained in Russia since 2019.
The U.S. government classified Griner’s case on May 3 as “wrongfully detained” in Russia, which means that the U.S. would work to negotiate her release, as opposed to letting her case play out in the Russian legal system.
Cherelle Griner said that she would like to speak with President Joe Biden.
“I just keep hearing that, you know, he has the power. She’s a political pawn,” she said.
“So if they’re holding her because they want you to do something, then I want you to do it,” she added.
Griner’s pre-trial detention in Russia was extended by one month on May 13, as the United States works to secure her freedom.
Alexander Boikov, Griner’s lawyer, told ABC News on May 13 that Griner’s pre-trial detention has been extended until June 18.
Russian media have reported that the U.S. and Russia are discussing the possibility of exchanging Griner for Victor Bout, a Russian arms dealer who was convicted in the U.S.
Boikov said he does not have any information on a possible exchange.
Griner’s trip to Russia to play off-season has underscored the issue of pay inequality in professional basketball.
Many WNBA players have traveled around the world to play in the off-season because they don’t make enough money during the season — an issue that is not as prevalent for NBA players who are paid more. The top WNBA salary is $228K, whereas star NBA players can make at least $1 million a year.
Asked if the issue has impacted her wife, Cherelle Griner said, “Absolutely.”
“BG would wholeheartedly love to not go overseas. She has only had one Thanksgiving in the States in nine years since she’s been pro, and she misses all that stuff. Just because, you know, she can’t make enough money in the WNBA, like, to sustain her life,” she said.
(NEW YORK) — At least 19 children and two adults are dead after a shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety.
The 18-year-old suspect, who is also dead, was a student at Uvalde High School, according to Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.
The governor said the suspect also allegedly shot his grandmother before entering school premises, but did not give any details about her condition.
In the wake of the deadly mass shooting, many parents are left grappling with how to explain the horrific act of gun violence — at a setting where most kids spend a majority of their days — to their children and teens.
“For the majority of students, school is a safe and supporting environment,” Dr. Robin Gurwitch, a licensed clinical psychologist and professor at Duke University Medical Center, told ABC News in 2018, after 17 people, including students, were killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida.
“So when a shooting happens at a school, it undermines our sort of worldview about where I can be that is a safe place,” she added.
Gurwitch, a member of the National Child Traumatic Stress Network, broke down how parents can discuss the news with their children, and how to help them to feel safe in the aftermath of the harrowing headlines.
Parents should initiate a conversation
Gurwitch stressed that in situations like a mass tragedy, it is “extremely important” for parents and caregivers — especially those with children in high school — to “be willing to bring this topic up.”
“We really want to want to wrap our arms around them and make them feel safe,” she added. “But part of being a parent is willingness to discuss difficult topics.”
“To believe that our children don’t know that these events occur is wishful thinking,” Gurwitch said. “We live in an age where we can go online and see live feed of people leaving the school, of responders, it’s updated every few moments.”
Gurwitch suggests that if you are watching the news with your children, turn it off and talk about the events calmly in order to get an idea of what they know, where they are coming from, and what misconceptions they may have already heard.
It is also critical to reassure children that parents and adults at their school “are going to do everything we can to make you safe,” Gurwitch added.
“Let them know that their school has plans in place to do everything to the best of their ability to make them safe,” she said.
Adapt the conversation based on your child’s age
Gurwitch emphasized that the conversation about the news should vary based on the age of your child.
“I use the analogy ‘it is the same as having a conversation about where do babies come from’ — it is a very different conversation if I’m talking to a preschool or elementary school student than if I’m talking to a high school student,” Gurwitch said.
When it comes to children preschool age and below, she added that parents should limit their media exposure.
“Preschoolers may not understand instant replays,” she said. “So that loop of children running out of the school, if they don’t know that that’s a replay, they think that school has thousands and thousands of students.”
For high school and older middle school age students, Gurwitch recommends addressing the incident directly, saying that you want to talk to them about the school shooting that happened and asking them what they know about it.
For children younger than that, Gurwitch recommended initiating the conversation by saying, “There was a very sad thing that happened at a school … today. It is very sad because people were hurt and people were killed, and I just want you to know about it if you hear kids talking about it at your school, and if you have any questions, you can talk to me.”
Regardless of your child’s age, Gurwitch stressed that parents should “most importantly show a willingness to answer questions,” and listen to their children’s concerns.
“Younger children may ask the same question over and over again,” she added. “That is how they process information.”
How to respond if your child says they don’t feel safe going back to school
If your child or teen says they do not feel safe going back to school, Gurwitch emphasized that it is important not to invalidate their feelings, but to talk about them.
“Say, ‘Tell me what it is that you’re worried about? What it is that you don’t feel safe about?'” she said. “Validate why your child may not feel safe. If we just discount it with a throwaway, ‘You are going to be fine,’ we shut down the conversation.”
Gurwitch added that you can reassure your child that “nowadays schools do have safety plans, and schools do practice shooting drills.”
“Some people are concerned about practicing these drills, but it’s like fire drills, it doesn’t make kids more scared that fires are going to break out, it makes students feel more secure that they have a plan in place,” she said.
“Be patient and supportive as children are trying to make sense of how something so horrific can happen at a setting where I go to be with friends, to learn,” she added.
Check back in
“I think that is really important to check back in tomorrow, to check back in the next day, to find out what are your friends talking about related to this school shooting,” Gurwitch said. “It is very important to get an understanding of how children are coping.”
“When there is a tragedy … a one-and-done conversation is not sufficient,” she added. “Let your child or teenager know that ‘I really do care about you and I am open to having this discussion.'”
If you notice your child or teen is distressed for a longer period of time, and Gurwitch added this may show up in “problems with sleep, problems with attention and focus, and increased irritability,” she recommends that parents reach out to their school guidance counselor, a local psychological association or even their pediatrician for further help.
The National Child Traumatic Stress Network offers comprehensive resource guides for parents, caregivers and educators to support students. Click HERE for resources related to school shootings.
