If this happened at a peaceful, one-room school house in a quiet, rural community, it could just as easily have been your child’s school. It could have been your child.
“A crime of this type attacks some of the most fundamental understandings we have of ourselves in the world in which we live,” says Pamela Grosh, a victim/witness coordinator for the Lancaster County District Attorney’s Office. “A profound principle of our lives gets shaken when an event like this happens.”
Grosh will be leading a discussion sponsored by the Lancaster County District Attorney’s office tonight at Solanco High School, 585 Solanco Road, Quarryville. The public is encouraged to attend the meeting, which runs from 7 to 9.
Grosh will lead discussions about ways to answer children’s questions, how to cope with the unfolding story and how to express emotions that might otherwise be buried.
“This will be a chance for people to talk, to express their thoughts and respond to the things they have in common,” Grosh says. “People need to talk; they need to express emotions they might never have expected to feel.
“A lot of time, people like to put distance between themselves and a crime,” she says. “But in this case, almost every family in the county sends their child to school. What could you have done? What distance is there? You realize this could have happened to any one of us. You can’t put it away and compartmentalize it and say it could never happen to you.”
Grosh wants people to come forward tonight and talk about those feelings.
“People need to say, ‘This is what I’m feeling, this is what frightens me,’ ” she says. “And people need to realize this is a normal response, they aren’t overreacting.”
She also wants to help people deal with the questions their kids might have.
“What do you say, for example, when your child is asking if their school is safe? Or if the windows in his classroom are bulletproof,” she asks.
“You have to answer their questions, but you also want to protect them,” Grosh says. “How do you balance that?”
Grosh is a member of the Keystone Crisis Intervention Team, which includes clergy, medical, law enforcement and social service members.
The team provides crisis intervention throughout the state.
“No event, no crime ever occurs in isolation,” Grosh says. “There are always ripples. And when it is something like this, where an entire community is involved, the ripples get that much bigger.”
While the meeting is open to community members, the news media has not been invited to attend and cameras and video will not be allowed. This is to allow all participants to feel comfortable.
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