Parents in Bend, Ore., are struggling to help their children cope after Thursday’s deadly shooting at an elementary school.
Three children, ages 5, 8 and 11, and a teacher were killed after a teenager forced his way into Silver Rail Elementary School. Hannah Ferrie said her 5- and 7-year-old daughters were at the school during the shooting.
Her elder child did not stop thinking about the shooting all day after she heard gunshots and the sound of glass shattering, Ms. Ferrie said. The girl sat in terrified silence next to her teacher in her second-grade classroom.
For hours, Ms. Ferrie’s younger daughter was “so scared that her sister was dead.”
“It’s such a relief, and also a feeling a profound guilt that other parents didn’t get that,” Ms. Ferrie, 41, said about reuniting with her daughters.
Her elder daughter does not want to leave her side or sleep alone after what she witnessed, Ms. Ferrie said.
“This is a systemic problem that the United States exclusively has,” she said. “It’s because we value Second Amendment rights over children’s lives, and that has to change. If I hear another thing that says thoughts and prayers, I will be even more disgusted.”
At a candlelight vigil on Thursday night, Kaylee Daniels hugged her crying daughter. The girl attends a different school in Bend, but her teacher turned off the lights and locked the door suddenly on Thursday afternoon when it was unclear whether other schools might be in danger.
“We had a long talk on the drive home, but it’s not something a kid can fully understand,” Ms. Daniels said.
She said she and her husband took both their daughters to the vigil, because “We have to think about how to be kind.” One daughter wept and shook as she recounted the lockdown.
“This will stay with her,” Ms. Daniels said. “It’s hard for her to understand that it could happen anywhere.”
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