Therapist shares advice on how to talk to your children after a school shooting

After Tuesday's tragedy in Texas, parents wonder how they should talk about the subject with their children.

FARGO (KVRR) – Flashing lights from emergency vehicles and people panicking. It’s hard to watch this kind of tragedy unfold.

“This is not a daily occurrence in every school, this is a scary thing and it obviously requires a lot of attention,” says Integrative Health Therapist Megan Week.

She says if kids are scared to go back to school, they should identify with things that make them feel safe…anything from teachers and principals to their friends.

She adds parents should answer questions depending on your kids’ ages.

“At different stages of development, they might have different questions. For instance, at younger stages, they’re going to have a lot more blunt questions and as they get older, they’re going to have a lot more questions about their peers or about safety,” Week says.

North Dakota’s Superintendent of Schools says students and staff are starting to emphasize the impact of mental health.

“Across the board, when I talk to parents, students, other family members, teachers, principals, all of those stakeholders say the same thing. It’s about mental health. It’s about people that are in need of mental health and behavioral health services. Even this morning when I was on a phone call with our elementary principals, that’s what they all pointed to. And they pointed to, they wanted me to understand the situations are occurring at younger and younger ages,” says the State Superintendent of Schools Kirsten Baesler.

Week adds it’s important to raise concerns right away if someone sees a student struggling.

“Really emphasizing that, if you see something, if you feel concerned about a kid that’s being bullied, if you feel concerned about a kid that is really being excluded or has other risk factors, telling teachers or telling their parents. Just continuing to share when they see something that doesn’t sit right with them,” Week says.

KVRR reached out to Fargo Public Schools.

In a statement, they say the district works with students individually or in small groups to “help process and develop their own personal understanding of events.”