We at the Attachment & Trauma Network, Inc. (ATN) are heart-broken by the most recent school shooting at Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis.
While school shootings have become commonplace in the United States, they should never be normalized, but understood as the preventable tragedies that they are. Often rooted in trauma, the causes of these incidents are complex combinations of unresolved mental health issues and tacit acceptance of the current levels of gun violence.
We believe these tragedies are preventable with whole society solutions. Educators and schools across the U.S. should not have to carry the entire burden of protecting their students and staff. And no parent should have to sacrifice their child’s safety to give them an education. We can…and MUST do better.
ATN also decries the scapegoating of any group of people for the actions of one person. The LGBTQ+ community – transgender community in particular – is not responsible for this action. This is a decidedly American problem. It will take all of us to decide that enough lives have been lost and we, as a community and culture, should fix it.
We grieve for the parents, families, educators and communities who have lost their beloveds. And we believe that the time to act is NOW. Empathic and compassionate dialogue is needed to move us toward “both/and” solutions—improving mental health care, early identification, and supports and reducing access to assault weapons, alongside continued safety measures in schools. Too often one political party focuses on one approach, dismissing the other…but this is NOT political. Stopping these mass killings requires all of us to come together and choose the children over politics.
ATN continues to believe in and work toward a society where all types of childhood trauma, including school shootings, are non-existent, and hope and resilience are every child’s birthright.
–ATN Board & Staff
