I am writing this letter to The Herald to express deep disappointment that the Marysville School District and the entire Washington state school system has been extremely remiss in educating themselves regarding the myriad symptoms and complex responses trauma has on children and how it impacts their brains ability to attend, test and to learn.
My niece, who lived with my husband and I for five years until returning home to her father, was one table away from the October, 2014 school shooting that took the lives of young teens at Marysville Pilchuck High School in the cafeteria. She watched as the children fell one by one from close-range gun shots to their heads and hundreds of other children ran helter-skelter not knowing exactly what to do while the shooter executed his final shot taking his own life. She watched children run from the cafeteria only to run back into the cafeteria not knowing where it was safe to go until they were all finally rounded up, hands over their heads and taken to a nearby church parking lot.
My niece now is on the precipice of graduating and leaving the physical space where the tragedy occurred with the hope to move on and out into adult life and attend college. While she will never leave the traumatic experience behind, it is time for her to graduate and experience the good that life has to offer a young person moving into adulthood. She has gone through hours of counseling, but the reality is, her brain is not yet done developing and the trauma will most likely impact her for years to come.
I am writing this letter because all other efforts have failed as seniors ready to graduate are being denied the ability to do so, even though they have earned all their credits, gone to school with great discipline, entered into internships from the skills centers all because of a test that is now required to get a diploma. My niece and dozens of other young people cannot pass this test and apparently, trauma, is not an accepted reason to waive this test.
I am asking that The Herald do a story on this and bring light to this deeply disturbing situation which has the ability to re-expose these young people to trauma and hold them back from moving forward in life. I wrote The Herald when this first happened and thanked you for the excellent coverage and also encouraged the school and the entire community to educate themselves on trauma and the lasting impacts it has on the juvenile brain.
I am calling on the Marysville School District and the state Superintendent’s Office to allow a waiver for these children so they can graduate. Making them take this test until they pass to get their diploma is unacceptable and cruel. As a state community, and even nationwide, we all chanted “MP Strong.” Let our compassion remain true and strong for these children who experienced a lifetime of trauma in a two-minute span of time.
Dawn Williams
Rochester
Editor’s note
A spokesman for the state Office of the Superintendent for Public Instruction said Wednesday that a committee at the office is considering a waiver for some Marysville Pilchuck students who witnessed the shooting as well as waivers for other circumstances. The committee is expected to make a recommendation to Superintendent Chris Reykdal later this week.
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