Scholars’ Circle – Trauma Experienced by Children from School Shootings – May 24, 2026

About this episode

This episode explores the psychological impact of school shootings on children and discusses effective responses to their trauma.

Mass shootings in the Unites States are unprecedented in advanced industrial democracies. We explore the psychological impact of these shootings on the survivors and witnesses, with a particular attention to the children who experience this trauma. What are effective actions to confront the traumas experienced by the children who survive school shootings? Overwhelming the response of mass shootings is to “do something.” But what should we as a society and as an electorate do in response to these mass shootings? [ dur: 58mins. ] Karla Vermeulen is the Deputy Director of the Institute for Disaster Mental Health and an Associate Professor of Psychology at SUNY New Paltz.She is the author of Generation Disaster: Coming of Age Post-9/11 and co-editor of Disaster Mental Health Case Studies: Lessons Learned from Counseling in Chaos . Robin Gurwitch is a Professor in the Duke University Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences and is Senior Advisor for the Terrorism and Disaster Program of the National Child Traumatic Stress Network . She is the co-author of Children in Disasters and Trauma-Directed Interaction (TDI): An Adaptation to Parent-Child Interaction Therapy…

People in this episode

Guests: Karla Vermeulen, Robin Gurwitch, Heather Littleton

Topics covered

• trauma
• children
• school shootings
• psychological impact
• mental health
• disaster response

Keywords

• mass shootings
• trauma
• children
• psychology
• mental health
• disaster
• response
• survivors

Mentioned in this episode

Organizations: Institute for Disaster Mental Health, Duke University Department of Psychiatry and Behavioral Sciences, National Child Traumatic Stress Network, University of Colorado, at Colorado Springs, Lyda Hill Institute for Human Resilience

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