FORT LAUDERDALE, FLA. (WSVN) - Broward County Public Schools Superintendent Robert Runcie said the district is doing everything in its power to help students heal following the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School massacre.
Runcie spoke to students Wednesday about the resources the district has provided after the recent tragedies that have struck the MSD and Parkland communities.
“We’re there to help you. We’re there to work with you,” said Runcie. “As a community, we love you, we love all our kids, and we’re going to do everything we can to help you deal with any difficult time that you’re having right now.”
Nineteen-year-old Sydney Aiello, who lived through the massacre at MSD, died in an apparent suicide on March 17 after losing her friend, victim Meadow Pollack, during the shooting.
Aiello’s family said she had been suffering from survivor’s guilt.
On March 23, 16-year-old Calvin Desir, a sophomore at MSD, also took his own life.
“We need all hands and feet on deck. We need to make sure that every one of us as adults that we’re engaged, and we’re making ourselves available to listen at our young people. Many of them are suffering silently,” said Broward County School Board Member Dr. Rosalind Osgood.
The district has since opened two wellness centers inside of MSD with 14 staff clinicians.
Following the tragic suicides, 23 additional health professionals were sent to the school.
For students who don’t want to get help at the school, two additional centers are available for them to get the help they need.
The City of Coral Springs recently opened the Eagles’ Haven Wellness Center, which is a safe space for shooting survivors.
The Broward County Resiliency Center is also open at the City of Parkland Amphitheater, located at Pine Trails Park.
“We are open and ready and available to provide services to anyone and everyone every day,” said Runcie.
Shortly after the MSD shooting, the school district also contacted Dr. David Schonfeld, director of the National Center for School Crisis and Bereavement, who is helping with social and mental concerns.
“The students who were freshman at the time of the shooting will be starting their junior year next year, and that has extreme academic demands and can be very stressful even outside of a disaster or crisis event,” said Schonfeld, “so we want to make sure that there are the full academic supports as well as the social emotional supports to help these kids thrive.”
Mt. Olive Baptist Church in Fort Lauderdale also held an interfaith prayer vigil Wednesday to spread the message that the community needs to be involved in the lives of young people, reiterating the saying, “It takes a village to raise a child.”
“We encourage students to talk to your faith leaders,” said Osgood, “talk to your mentors, talk to your aunts and uncles. Find someone that you trust to talk to about what’s going on.”
Runcie said providing these resources for students is costing the district millions of dollars and that they hope to get some reimbursement from the federal government through grants.
However, he added that the money this is costing the district is not important and that what is important is preventing future tragedies.
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