Stockton Schools Rally To Support Students After Deadly Shooting

Three children aged 8 to 14 and a 21-year-old were killed Nov. 29 at a birthday party in Stockton after an armed suspect shot at the Banquet Hall at Monkey Space. One of the victims, 8-year-old Journey Rose Guerrero, was identified as a Stockton Unified student.

As the community tries to recover, the district has activated its crisis team across its 55 campuses and expanded counseling services of counselors, psychologists and mental health clinicians to help students process the trauma.

“We carry Journey’s family in our hearts as we grieve alongside them. We will continue to do everything we can to support them and our entire SUSD community,” said SUSD Superintendent Dr. Michelle Rodriguez.

Created in 2018, the district’s Mental Health and Behavior Support Services department was created to help students address behavioral and mental-health barriers to learning through trauma-informed practices and interventions.

The district said it also sent emails to almost 42,000 parents with links and information to help students process what happened.

Sharee Wilburn-Mansaray, an area parent and president of the African American Black Parent Advisory Committee at Stockton Unified, said it is the district’s moral responsibility to engage parents, staff, and students in the healing process.

Mansaray said that outside of the mental health services offered, Stockton Unified has done very little to address the incident outside of Commodore Elementary.

“We have adults and students in many of our schools that have been affected,” she said. “It is not enough to say the district has counselors and mental health clinicians in every school if they are not intentionally addressing the trauma with them. This would mean talking to every student and staff member about what happened and all of the services available.”

She added several school staff have had no clear direction on how to address the incident or the deaths of other students in prior weeks.

“There is frustration among parents,” she said. “Parents have been shut down or turned away from services if the events did not happen at school. This is totally unacceptable.”

She hopes Stockton Unified’s board president supports all counselors and mental health clinicians who need to be in every classroom and talking to students about the various services available.

“Parents need to have a safety plan in place and the school district should be working on ensuring every school is ready to react to an active shooter in their schools,” she said. “Children need to know parents and school staff are available to listen to how they feel. Some schools have not addressed the incident at schools and it makes me think we have students that may not have anyone to share their thoughts or feelings, which can lead to anxiety and fear.”

Dr. Kristee Haggins, executive director of Safe Black Space and a well-known African-centered psychologist, said one of the main things parents can do to help their children process what happened is by making sure they have a sense of safety and comfort when they approach the conversation.

Haggins added that it’s also important to not have that conversation only once, but to continue to acknowledge it and check in with them, as trauma shows up in different ways in young people.

“It’s important that, as much as possible, we have outlets to express whatever it is that we may be struggling with,” Haggins said. “When people, and particularly children, experience a traumatic event … if they don’t deal with that trauma, it’s going to stay with them, potentially, and then show up in other ways as they continue to develop.”

Some examples of how trauma can show up physically and behaviorally especially in teens and children include headaches, stomachaches, tightness in the chest, changes in appetite, fatigue, and sleep issues.

Other expressions are anger, survivor’s guilt, avoiding places or things related to the trauma, isolating from others, and sometimes engaging in risky behaviors.

Cognitive abilities such as focus can suffer, which may affect students’ ability to complete assignments and therefore their grades, Haggins said. “Not all therapy is healing, and not all healing has to include therapy,” she said. “There’s lots of other ways that our community and people can heal through different situations, whether that’s potentially connecting with their faith, being able to talk with other people who get you, or even finding productive ways to express what we need and be in community with each other.”