How Highland Park High School tackles trauma from deadly 4th of July parade shooting

HIGHLAND PARK, Ill. (WLS) -- The Highland Park Fourth of July shooting had a major psychological impact, not just on those at the parade, but the entire community, including students.

ABC7's Mark Rivera sat down with District 113 Superintendent Bruce Law and the district's first-ever director of recovery, Jennifer Ginopolis, for a conversation about their new trauma informed-approach to learning this school year.

Law told ABC7 about how the district responded to the shooting on the day it happened.

SEE ALSO | Highland Park parade shooting victims honored with prayer, oak tree planting nearly 1 year later

"The first thing that we did, we wanted to make sure all our students were safe. We had bands students in the parade. We had football players in the parade," Law said. "The next thing that happened was, I think, truly extraordinary. There were conversations very quickly on the support we needed to provide."

Law said they worked to make the school a place where people could receive that support.

"It became the focal point of the community. There were so many people who came to Highland Park, either to connect with other people or to actually talk with someone who could help them work through what just happened," Law said.

Ginopolis talked about how the traumatic event changed the way they looked at approaching the school year, especially with students who had actually been in the parade and witnessed the violence and carnage.

READ MORE | Cooper Roberts update: Boy paralyzed in Highland Park shooting now 'tackling life head-on,' mom says

"Everybody was shaken. Everybody was affected. And so, it has changed our entire way we do school, the way we look at school, the way we are activated, the way we look at our curriculum. And, it's changed absolutely everything," Ginopolis said. "In each building, we created trauma interventionists and those positions were charged with working with students that come into our doors with trauma."

Ginopolis explained that trauma is common among their students, and being prepared is important.

'How do we support individual students who need the most level of support, when they have trauma, whether form the Fourth of July, or isolated from the Fourth of July? We weren't going to tease that out, because we know we've learned almost one in four students will come into our doors with trauma," Ginopolis said.

Ginopolis also talked about the best way to approach students who have experienced trauma.

"There is a power to listening and to hearing people's stories. And, that is the way I lead and would advise, and did advise our staff to lead with," Ginopolis said. "The supports that we have put into place, while they are completely reactive from this horrible event, they are truly proactive practices to be able to address the trauma in our world in general."

RELATED | 'Trauma is real': Local faith leaders reflect on deadly Highland Park parade shooting 1 year later

Law said he wished the country would take a stronger approach to solving its gun violence problem.

"I just wish, as a country, we'd say we are going to solve this problem, so there's a generation of students who don't have to worry about this as they come to school every day, and their parents don't have to worry about this when they send their students every day, because as a country, we've solved this problem for every student and every school in the U.S.," Law said.