Hundreds Seek Emotional Support After School Shooting as Bend Community Grapples with Fear, Grief

A mother’s eyes welled up as she watched her young daughter pet a golden retriever outside of the Bend Central Library Friday afternoon — about 24 hours after three children and an educator were shot and killed in an elementary school classroom in southeast Bend.

People pet dogs Friday afternoon in front of the Bend Central Library, where Deschutes County and others hosted a clinic to help people deal with the emotional trauma of Thursday’s shooting at Silver Rail Elementary. Credit: Clayton Franke

As details emerged — and questions remained — about the victims, the assailant and what led to the tragic event, it was still too soon for many parents of children at Silver Rail Elementary to talk about it publicly.

“It’s been a rough 24 hours,” one parent said.

Many sought emotional support at the library, where behavioral health professionals offered free help with crisis management. Hundreds of people flocked to the library to receive support as of Friday afternoon, with more events scheduled for later that day and over the weekend.

But the shock, sadness, fear and grief rippled far beyond Silver Rail students and their loved ones. Community members of all ages — teenagers, young adults, seniors and young children — all sought professional help the day after the violence.

Deschutes County, along with St. Charles Health System and Bend-La Pine Schools, opened a clinic at the library at 10 am and saw a “constant stream” of people throughout the day, said Deschutes County Behavioral Health Director Shannon Brister-Raugust.

“I don’t think an event like this skips an age or a demographic,” Shannon Brister-Raugust told the Source Friday. “The loss of anyone is impactful — the loss of children is very impactful. To have something of this magnitude is pretty significant.”

In a press conference Friday afternoon, police released the names of two shooting victims: five-year-old Rhoam Summer and 25-year-old Megan Lambert, a teacher at Silver Rail. The names of two others who died in the shooting, an eight-year-old and an 11-year-old, haven’t been released. The shooting occurred in a special education classroom.

Bend-La Pine Schools closed schools across the district on Friday following the tragedy. Support events popped up across the community, with the High Desert Museum offering a free day and businesses offering free food, arts and crafts or organizing fundraisers.

Rowan Faddis, a fifth grader at Buckingham Elementary in northeast Bend, had soccer practices and games canceled for the weekend. He went to the library to read, he said.

“Books help me calm down,” Faddis said. His cousin attends Silver Rail but wasn’t harmed in the shooting.

Brister-Raugust said her team is trained to deliver what’s called Critical Incident Stress Management. It’s meant to help people understand the normal psychological, behavioral and physical responses to traumatic events in order to reduce fear and anxiety around the responses. It’s also meant to educate people about when to seek help if those responses continue.

“It’s pretty common right now for people to be angry,” Brister-Raugust said. “It’s pretty common for people to be hypervigilant, or have fear. It’s pretty common for people to have physical symptoms, like a headache or disrupted sleep.”

She continued: “If that continued for weeks beyond this, then you would say, this has gone on beyond the typical time frame and I would want to seek help.”

Studies have shown school shootings are linked to an increase in anti-anxiety and anti-depressant medications along with a drop in test scores for students who survive. And the effects can reach far beyond people who were at the school when the shooting occurred, according to the American Psychological Association.

Brister-Raugust said the type of support clinics like the one hosted Friday have been shown to reduce lingering emotional effects for communities after mass shootings or other traumatic events.

But some people who went to the library weren’t looking to talk to anyone, Shannon-Brister said.

“They’re just looking for community,” she said. “They’re looking to not be alone.”

One young teacher at a Bend middle school had a Friday therapy appointment canceled because the therapist is a parent at Silver Rail. So, the teacher went to the library for support instead.

The teacher, who asked to remain anonymous due to their employment with Bend-La Pine Schools, said the shooting has rocked her career ambitions.

“It’s just crazy,” the teacher told the Source. “I thought I’d work at a school forever. It makes you rethink that kind of thing.”