Three suicides linked to massacres at school, open wounds in the United States

The community of Parkland I struggled on Monday with the suicides, a few days apart, of two students who had survived the shooting last year at a school in this southern city. Florida in which 17 people died.

Waiting, a third suicide triggered the alarm Monday when it was reported that the father of a daughter who died during the attack on Sandy Hook, another school, also committed suicide.

Jeremy Richman, 49, lost her 6-year-old daughter to the Connecticut Mbadacre, where 20 young children and six adults died in 2012.

"It's a horrible and devastating news"Connecticut Senator Chris Murphy said on Twitter.

In Florida, the head of the Emergency Management Division urged state legislators to allocate more resources to help survivors of the Parkland mbadacrenorth of Miami.

"Mental health is a bipartisan issue," said Jared Moskowitz on Twitter. "Now that we are in session, it's time."

Sydney Aiello, 19, committed suicide last week after suffering "survivor's fault"According to his mother told the press," a phenomenon in which the victim asks why he was saved from death.

A second student of the school Marjory Stoneman Douglas He died Saturday in what the police called an "apparent suicide", although the identity of the young man was not revealed.

The news spread to small communities of Parkland and the nearby town of Coral Springs and, on Sunday evening, parents, students, officials, and teachers met in an emergency to discuss how to improve therapeutic support for dealing with the trauma that resulted in the death. one of the worst shootings in recent history. United States.

– 17 + 2 –
"This is one of many meetings with mental health experts in the city and county to ensure that our students, teachers and parents receive the information needed to prevent the next suicide," he said. -he declares. Max Schachter, father of Alex, one of the 17 victims of the shooting of February 14 of last year.

"Everyone takes this crisis seriously to save lives"he added.

Ryan Petty, whose 14-year-old daughter, Alaina, was killed during the attack, also attended Sunday's meeting.

"We must recognize that after such an event, there will be trauma, anxiety and depression"Petty told the local Sun Sentinel newspaper.

Petty added that the group had adopted the "Columbia Protocol", a series of questions that can help family members and friends determine if someone is at risk of suicide. If the answers are positive, it is recommended to call the local suicide prevention service.

"We need to educate parents and teachers to recognize the signs and ask the right questions"said Petty.

Parents who attended the meeting will try to inform all other relatives in the district by email, social media and phone calls, encouraging them to ask the right questions.

On Twitter, people in mourning popularized the "17 + 2" formula, to refer to the number of deaths that the attack left in total.

"Stop telling us that we are going to get away. We are not overcoming something that should never have happened, "wrote David Hogg, one of the survivors who gained greater national notoriety after the shootout at the gun sale.

"The trauma and the losses do not just go away, you have to learn to live with them and seek help," added the 18-year-old activist.

The suicides virtually coincided with the first birthday on Sunday of "Walk for our lives", the national demonstration against arms that brought hundreds of thousands of people to Washington.

In the meantime, the director of Broward Schools – the county to which he belongs ParklandRobert Runcie encouraged survivors, friends and relatives of victims to visit the "Resilience Center" located in a park near the school, where doctors are available throughout the afternoon.