On February 14th of 2018, Parkland, Florida, massive destruction took place when 17 were killed at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School. To this day, we are still feeling the repercussions.
In the span of one week, two Parkland teenagers committed suicide. Sydney Aiello, age 19 and a recent graduate, was a senior in high school when the shooting took place. One of her friends, Meadow Pollack, was among the 17 killed. After graduating from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, Aiello commited suicide.
In an article posted on the Washington Post, Aiello’s mother described the intense amount of survivor’s guilt she had, along with PTSD. There has been another apparent suicide of a Parkland student, although the young man has not been publicly identified yet.
Ryan Petty, the father of Alaina Petty, who was a student whom was killed in the massacre, tweeted out “17 + 2,” which sums up the sadness of the situation.
Unrelated to the Suicides in Parkland, Jeremy Richmond, who was the father of a first grader who was killed at the Sandy Hook Massacre in 2002, was found to have commited suicide as well.
Not only are the lives of those unjustly killed in these massacres at schools being lost, but the lives of the survivors, of family members, and friends are being lost too.
Any individual can feel the heaviness of the situation and of the massive effects that these shootings are leaving on the public. No matter how someone feels gun violence should be solved, it can be agreed upon that it is an issue wreaking havoc on our society.
Teenagers today, comparatively to those even a generation before, deal with the everyday anxiety of knowing that gun violence disasters could strike at any moment. Mental health has largely been recognized in recent years, but there are still many ways to improve upon the foundation that has already been given.
Clearly, the issue rests not only on the innocent who were killed but also for everyone around them. Family, friends, teachers, and peers are unable to healthily cope with the trauma that is constantly being thrown at people in our world today.
Just as preventative drills and talks about gun violence take place in the school system, there needs to be preventative measures taken into consideration for people’s mental health.
Measures need to be taken to prevent more lives from being lost due to trauma and inability to cope with loss as we are taking to prevent gun violence.
