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This article about mental and emotional health in schools from The Washington Post goes in depth about the impacts that the pandemic had on students mental health and the lack of support that schools are able to offer. The article offers statistics like 7 in 10 public schools are seeing more students requesting services. In a poll only around half of schools noted that they felt they were able to provide adequate services for students. Because of increasing demand for mental health services, schools have made changes like offering teachers mental health training, making changes to the academic calendar, and implementing support groups. The information directly pertains to teaching health in elementary schools because we can work to provide students with the resources they need such as support groups and one on one support with a counselor.

Meckler, L. (2022, May 31). Schools are struggling to meet rising mental health needs, data shows. The Washington Post. Retrieved April 23, 2024, from

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Students line up to enter an elementary school in Jersey City last year. (Seth Wenig/AP)
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Ask most teachers or principals about the mental health of their students this year, and they will tell you stories of how much worse things are than normal:More fights in the hallway. Students unable to focus in class. Depression and sadness.

New federal data helps quantify just how much worse.

A survey released Tuesday documents the toll the pandemic has taken on students' mental health, with 7 in 10 public schools seeing a rise in the number of children seeking services. Even more, 76 percent, said faculty and staff members have expressed concerns about depression, anxiety and trauma in students since the start of the pandemic.

Yet only about half of all schools said they were able to effectively provide needed services.

The results come as an enormously stressful school year draws to a close. They add to the evidence that the pandemic is leaving this generation of students with significant mental health challenges. Anecdotally, teachers report that students' emotional growth was stunted during months or longer of remote schooling, and that many returned to the classroom without coping skills that would be typical for their ages.

"The pandemic has taken a clear and significant toll on students' mental health," said Peggy G. Carr, commissioner of the National Center for Education Statistics, which conducted the survey.

The survey was conducted in April, before last week's devastating massacre at an elementary school in Uvalde, Tex.

As a result of the rising needs, 2 in 3 schools increased the types or amount of mental health services available, the survey found. Almost all schools - 96 percent - provided at least some school-based mental health services, most commonly from a school counselor or licensed mental health provider employed by the school system.

In addition, just over half of schools offered teachers training on how to help students with their social, emotional or mental well-being, and nearly half created or expanded social and emotional health programs.

Seven in 10 schools said they have a program in place to address social and emotional learning, even as those programs have come under attack from conservatives in some communities.

In 'social-emotional learning,' right sees more critical race theory

Separately, 28 percent of schools said they made changes to their daily or yearly academic calendars in hopes of mitigating mental health issues. In some places, that was a controversial move because it meant canceling classes on certain days, which caused families already exhausted by campus closures to scramble for care.

Indio High School in Southern California offers 14 support groups to address the social-emotional needs of students, Principal Derrick Lawson said. Groups address topics such as grief, wellness, anger management and social skills. Some are long term, and others meet for a short time.

Some 400 students, out of about 2,000 in the school, participate in at least one of the groups, he said. The school relies on outside providers and would run more groups, Lawson said, if he could find ways to staff them.

"We have greater need than we can find the people," he said.

In many cases, he said, the pandemic brought to the surface long-standing mental health struggles. He likened it to what appears to be a calm pool of water. "If you drain the water, all of a sudden, you find all kinds of stuff."

The federal survey found many school officials saying increased needs were not being met.

Just 12 percent of schools strongly agreed with the statement "My school is able to effectively provide mental health services to all students in need." An additional 44 percent said they moderately agreed.

That left 44 percent who either disagreed or did not express a view. The most common reasons cited were insufficient staffing and, for about half of schools, insufficient funding.

The survey did not find any statistically significant differences on this question among schools based on the racial or economic demographics of their student bodies.

It also found middle and high schools were more likely than elementary schools to say they could serve all students.

The survey found that mental health needs were acute not just for students, but for school employees, too. About 3 in 10 schools reported an increase in workers seeking school-based mental health services, and 6 in 10 reported a rise in staffers' concern over their own or their colleagues' mental health.

Some schools responded to these heightened needs by providing additional professional development on mental health and more time to prepare for classes. Three in 10 offered additional paid time off, and 14 percent increased compensation.

The survey of 830 public K-12 schools from a sample chosen to be nationally representative was conducted April 12 to 26 by the National Center for Education Statistics, part of the federal Education Department. The survey, conducted monthly, was created to track the impact of the pandemic, including how much in-person schooling was being offered by districts.

Virtually all schools now offer in-person, full-time school and have for some time. The April survey did find a drop in the share of schools that had students out of the building because of quarantines, falling from 94 percent during the omicron surge in January to 30 percent in April.

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Schools are struggling to meet rising mental health needs, data shows

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A federal survey documents the pandemic's toll, with 7 in 10 public schools seeing a rising number of students seeking mental health services. About half of schools said they were able to effectively provide resources.

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The article Physical Fitness Linked to Better Mental Health in Young People by The New York Times dives into a study that was recently published about how physical fitness combats against developing depressive, anxiety, and ADHD symptoms. This specific study is drawn from independent assessments and objective standards which differs from previous reports that link physical and mental health, which drew from questionnaires and self-reports. The article states that "mental health is the defining public health crisis of our time.". The information in this article is important to know for teachers who teach health to elementary students because physical health and activity can be a deterrent for mental health issues. Teachers can give students physical activity outlets to help combat poor mental health.

Richtel, M. (2024, April 29). Physical Fitness Linked to Better Mental Health in Young People. The New York Times. Retrieved April 23, 2024, from

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Physical Fitness Linked to Better Mental Health in Young People

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A new study bolsters existing research suggesting that exercise can protect against anxiety, depression and attention challenges.

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Safety and Preventing Unintentional Injury

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Safety and Preventing Unintentional Injury

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In the article Hundreds of young children killed playing with guns, CDC reports by CBS News gives insight on the horrifying statistics about incidental deaths from unsafely stored guns. The article stated that 8 in 10 gun death incidents took place in a home and of those 56% happened in the child's own home. For kids aged 0 to 5 more than half the deaths were found to be self inflicted. 99 percent of the reported deaths were with guns that had been stored both loaded and unlocked. A new finding shows that gun owners with children are more likely to safely store their gun compared to years past, however the article notes that more parents overall are owning firearms so this offsets the increase in safer gun storage. As a health teacher gun safety can be a really important classroom topic. As a teacher you can also send PSA to the parents of your students explaining the importance of safe gun storage. It is essential for teachers to know about the dangers of unsafely stored guns because as teachers we want to do everything to keep our students safe.

Tin, A. (2023, December 14). Hundreds of young children killed playing with guns, CDC reports. CBS News. Retrieved April 23, 2024, from

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Hundreds of young children in the U.S. have been killed playing with guns over the last two decades, according to a study published Thursday by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. The vast majority of cases involved guns that were stored unlocked and loaded.

The CDC report's authors say their new findings highlight the rising toll taken by accidental gun deaths that could be preventable.

"Securing firearms (e.g., locked, unloaded, and separate from ammunition) is protective against unintentional firearm injury deaths among children and adolescents, underscoring the importance of promoting secure firearm storage," reads the study, which was published in the agency's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.

For the study, federal researchers examined 1,262 accidental firearm deaths reported from 2003 to 2021 to the CDC's National Violent Death Reporting System, which links death certificate tallies to other data from law enforcement investigations.

Of them, the CDC's report narrowed in on 367 accidental gun deaths of children ages 0 to 5 years old and 176 deaths of children 6 to 10 years old.

Unintentional firearm deaths made up around a quarter of all firearm deaths over this time period in children under 10 years old, according to other CDC data. That CDC database tallies 82 unintentional gun deaths of children up to 10 years old in 2021, the most in a single year reported across the U.S. over the past two decades.

Firearm deaths overall have also risen as a cause of death in kids, after a steep increase especially in teens ages 15 to 19 starting in 2020.

Accidental gun deaths at home

For all age groups of children through 17 years old, the report found that accidental gun deaths were most likely to occur in a house or apartment. Eight in 10 such incidents took place in a home; 56% happened in the child's own home.

Among the youngest age group, kids 0 to 5 years old, more than half of unintentional firearm deaths were found to be self-inflicted by the child. Among those accidentally killed by others, more than half were from other children ages 10 and under.

Around 2 in 3 gun deaths in this age group were from playing with the firearm or showing it off to others. In 99% of all reported deaths in this age group, the gun had been stored both loaded and unlocked.

Accidental gun deaths in the next oldest group of children, ages 6 to 10 years old, were more likely to be inflicted by someone else. Nearly half of accidental gun deaths in this age group were at the hands of shooters who were between 11 and 17 years old.

Similar to accidental gun deaths of the youngest kids, nearly 2 in 3 of deaths of kids ages 6 to 10 years old were also from playing with the firearm or showing it off to others.

"These findings underscore the fact that parents' reliance on children's ability to distinguish between real and toy firearms and to not handle a firearm if they encountered one is insufficient to prevent unintentional firearm injury deaths of children," the study's authors wrote.

More than 8 in 10 deaths in this age involved guns that were stored both loaded and unlocked.

In a third of accidental gun deaths in kids ages 0 to 5 years old and more than a quarter of kids ages 6 to 10 years old, the guns had been stored on a nightstand or bed.

The new findings come at a time when gun owners with children are now more likely to safely secure their firearms at home, compared to previous years.

In separate survey results published last year, 44.1% of firearm owners with kids said they stored all their guns locked and unloaded at home during 2021, up from 29% in 2015.

However, the study also noted that a larger share of parents are also now owning firearms overall, effectively offsetting the increase in safer gun storage.

"As a result, our estimate of the number of children who lived in a household with loaded and unlocked firearms in 2021 (4.6 million) was not meaningfully different from the estimate reported in the 2015 National Firearms Survey," that study's authors concluded.

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Hundreds of young children killed playing with guns, CDC reports

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From 2003 to 2021, 1,262 unintentional gun deaths of children were reported in the U.S.

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In the article, About 1 in 5 high school students have witnessed community violence, new CDC report says by CNN Health reports on community violence and its effects on youth. A harrowing statistic states that suicide is the third leading cause of death among 14 to 18 year olds. The article lists numerous statistic which tie to the idea that "teen dating violence, sexual violence, and bullying are "common experiences" for US high schoolers.". The article shares more information on statistics regarding connectedness, parental support, and substance abuse. My overall take away was that much of our youth are going through intense and dangerous experiences and we are only perpetuating them by not taking action as this is a real public health crisis. As a teacher I feel like this is important to be aware of because I want to create a safe space in my classroom where students can come for help if they are feeling any of these ways. I also think we need to educate our students in a deeper way. Clearly the current ways we are educating our students on the dangers of substance abuse or guns aren't working.

Howard, J. (2024, April 28). About 1 in 5 high school students have witnessed community violence, new CDC report says. CNN Health. Retrieved April 23, 2024, from

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centers for disease control and prevention

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us department of health and human services

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About 1 in 5 high school students have witnessed community violence, CDC says | CNN

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About 1 in 5 high school students in the United States has seen violence first-hand among people who are not related, including homicides involving guns. That's according to a new report from the US Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, which calls community violence "a significant public health concern."

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In the article Juul to pay D.C. $15 million in settlement for marketing products to teens by The Washington Post readers learn about the current settlement that is being carried out currently against the vape company Juul. The article shares that in 2019 Juuls began to get very popular with teens. This can be attributed to the marketing from Juul which featured young models at elaborate parties. The vapes also came in fun flavors and sleek size. The company is also said to have downplayed Juuls nicotine contents and how addictive it truly is. A powerful quote from a DC principal says Juul " reversed a decades-long trend of declining teen smoking rates.". As a teacher I want to know about the dangers of tobacco and vape use because it is so common now, in 2022 a study found that 2.5 million adolescents were using some type of e-cigarette. I would want to teach my students about the dangers of using vapes. A lot of times they are seen as a healthier alternative to smoking, however, we know just how addicting they are and that there have been deaths associated with vaping.

Brice-Saddler, M. (2023, April 12).Juul to pay D.C. $15 million in settlement for marketing products to teens. The Washington Post. Retrieved April 23, 2024, from

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A Juul e-cigarette starter kit at a smoke shop in New York in 2018. (Seth Wenig/AP)
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E-cigarette manufacturer Juul Labs will pay the District more than $15 million as part of a settlement over allegations that the company deceptively marketed its products toward teenagers while downplaying their addictive properties, D.C. Attorney General Brian L. Schwalb (D) said Wednesday.

D.C. joined New York, California, Illinois, Massachusetts, New Mexico and Colorado in the $462 million settlement. Schwalb said at a virtual news conference that the $15.2 million sum the District will receive reflects the largest-ever litigated settlement under the city's consumer protection law.

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Juul to pay D.C. $15 million in settlement for marketing products to teens

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The District joined several other states in the $462 million settlement agreement with the e-cigarette company.

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In the article 1 in 12 kids lose a parent or sibling before turning 18: Report by ABC News shares personal stories of parent loss, statistics of parent/sibling loss, and ways for schools to help students going through this. The article talks about the need to openly talk about death and grief in schools so that students don't feel alone. The article also mentions how losing a parent is a huge risk factor for adult mental health problems. As a teacher it is important that you address death and grief in the classroom because it can happen to any of our students and we need to create a safe environment for them to learn and heal. I think talking with students about death and grief can help them empathize with their peers who may be dealing with the death of a loved one. Also talking about it in the beginning of the school year and not just speaking about it if or when it happens to a student in your classroom is good measure.

Ruprecht M. (2023, March 28).1 in 12 kids lose a parent or sibling before turning 18: Report. ABC News. Retrieved April 23, 2024, from

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Children who have lost a parent can feel isolated.

Patricia Royalty's world turned upside down last June when her 34-year-old husband Dakota Royalty died from cirrhosis. The 36-year-old mother was left caring for the couple's five children.

"He meant a lot to the kids. He was always a really good father," Patricia said in an interview with ABC News. "When my 5-year-old went to school in January, they asked her what her new year's resolution was. She asked for her dad back."

Royalty's children are among a growing group of children who have lost a parent or sibling. A new report from Judi's House - an organization that advocates for grieving kids and families - found that one in 12 kids will lose a parent or sibling by age 18. Since the pandemic, the rate has continued to increase.

Micki Burns, a co-author of the report, said that on top of the grief, children who have lost a parent can feel isolated because it's difficult for other kids to understand grief and loss.

"Recognizing that [losing a parent or sibling] is prevalent is important," Burns said in an interview with ABC News. "It's something that we need to start to talk about more openly and more easily so that the children don't feel so isolated."

Losing a parent during childhood is an important risk factor for adult mental health problems and the issue is often overlooked, according to M. Katherine Shear, a grief expert at Columbia University.

While grief affects everyone in different ways, Shear said children are oftentimes not the focus of support from community members. She said this most likely happens because people think children are more resilient than their grieving parent.

"[Kids are then] in a situation of great emotional need with a parent who is less able to provide it due to their own intense grief," Shear said in an email to ABC News. "It's very important that clinicians learn about childhood grief, how to recognize and treat it."

The researchers behind the new report also found higher rates of childhood grief in some southern and Appalachian states. West Virginia had the highest rate, with approximately 13.3% of children experiencing grief, while Minnesota had the lowest rate. Arizona, Royalty's home state, had a rate of 8.8%.

It's unclear why certain states had lower rates, but Burns suggested the differences may depend on resource availability and state laws. She said states like West Virginia may have reduced access to health care and other resources.

Burns also emphasized that the causes of death have changed over the years. According to this year's report, the leading causes of death for parents are accidents, heart disease and cancer. Birth conditions, accidents and birth defects top the list for siblings who die.

Suicide and homicide are also among the leading causes of death. Royalty's sister, who had one child, died earlier this year from a fentanyl overdose.

Burns said she noticed a large uptick in suicide and drug overdose deaths during her career.

"That's where we really see kids coming in questioning, 'Was this because of something I did? Was this because I wasn't a good enough son or good enough sibling?'" Burns said. "I think it's alarming and it's saddening."

Shear pointed to research suggesting that negative outcomes in children, such as depression, continue to affect them for as long as seven years on average after a relative's death.

While Royalty's children are still learning to grieve their father's death, they receive emotional and social support at school. They are also finding ways to honor her late husband.

"I feel bad for kids who experience this at a young age. It's difficult for them to show emotions and open up," Royalty said. "Always remain strong. Know that your parents will be watching you regardless. Do anything and everything to make them proud of you."
Michal Ruprecht is a medical student at Wayne State University School of Medicine and a member of ABC News Medical Unit.

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1 in 12 kids lose a parent or sibling before turning 18: Report

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Kids in certain states like West Virginia are at a higher risk.

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In the article Gender ID, sexual orientation can be talked about in Florida classrooms after lawsuit settlement by CBS News readers learn about the recent lawsuit which clarifies the law which banned instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in early grades. The article shares that LGBTQ+ teachers were unsure if they could even show pictures of their spouses or speak about their marriages to their class. The settlement did not get rid of the law but it did clarify that teachers are allowed to discuss LGBTQ+ people. As a future educator with a philosophy that we should be teaching diversity and critical literacy as well as creating a space where every student is welcomed and celebrated for who they are, I am appalled that the previous version of the law was even in place. Gender and sexual orientation already consume our education system in many ways. It is incredibly hypocritical to ban the conversations about gender and sexual orientation that don't conform to traditional American values.

(2024, March 11). Gender ID, sexual orientation can be talked about in Florida classrooms after lawsuit settlement. CBS News. Retrieved April 23, 2024, from

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Students and teachers will be able to speak freely about sexual orientation and gender identity in Florida classrooms, provided it's not part of instruction, under a settlement reached Monday between Florida education officials and civil rights attorneys who had challenged a state law which critics dubbed "Don't Say Gay."

The settlement clarifies what is allowed in Florida classrooms following passage two years ago of the law prohibiting instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in early grades. Opponents said the law had created confusion about whether teachers could identity themselves as LGBTQ+ or if they even could have rainbow stickers in classrooms.

Other states used the Florida law as a template to pass prohibitions on classroom instruction on gender identity or sexual orientation. Alabama, Arkansas, Indiana, Iowa, Kentucky and North Carolina are among the states with versions of the law.

Under the terms of the settlement, the Florida Board of Education will send instructions to every school district saying the Florida law doesn't prohibit discussing LGBTQ+ people, nor prevent anti-bullying rules on the basis of sexual orientation and gender identity or disallow Gay-Straight Alliance groups. The settlement also spells out that the law is neutral - meaning what applies to LGBTQ+ people also applies to heterosexual people - and that it doesn't apply to library books not being used in the classroom.

"What this settlement does, is, it re-establishes the fundamental principal, that I hope all Americans agree with, which is every kid in this country is entitled to an education at a public school where they feel safe, their dignity is respected and where their families and parents are welcomed," Roberta Kaplan, the lead attorney for the plaintiffs, said in an interview. "This shouldn't be a controversial thing."

In a statement, Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis's office described the deal as a "major win" with the law remaining intact.

"Today's mutually agreed settlement ensures that the law will remain in effect and it is expected that the case will be dismissed by the Court imminently," the statement said.

The law, formally known as the Parental Rights in Education Act, has been championed by the Republican governor since before its passage in 2022 by the GOP-controlled Florida Legislature. It barred instruction on sexual orientation and gender identity in kindergarten through the third grade, and it was expanded to all grades last year.

Republican lawmakers had argued that parents should broach these subjects with children and that the law protected children from being taught about inappropriate material.

But opponents of the law said it created a chilling effect in classrooms. Some teachers said they were unsure if they could mention or display a photo of their same-sex partner in the classroom. In some cases, books dealing with LGBTQ+ topics were removed from classrooms and lines mentioning sexual orientation were excised from school musicals. The Miami-Dade County School Board in 2022 decided not to adopt a resolution recognizing LGBTQ History Month, even though it had done so a year earlier.

The law also triggered the ongoing legal battles between DeSantis and Disney over control of the governing district for Walt Disney World in central Florida after DeSantis took control of the government in what the company described as retaliation for its opposition to the legislation. DeSantis touted the fight with Disney during his run for the 2024 GOP presidential nomination, which he ended earlier this year.

The civil rights attorneys sued Florida education officials on behalf of teachers, students and parents, claiming the law was unconstitutional, but the case was dismissed last year by a federal judge in Tallahassee who said they lacked standing to sue. The case was appealed to the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals.

Kaplan said they believed the appellate court would have reversed the lower court's decision, but continuing the lawsuit would have delayed any resolution for several more years.

"The last thing we wanted for the kids in Florida was more delay," Kaplan said.

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Gender ID, sexual orientation can be talked about in Florida classrooms after lawsuit settlement

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Students and teachers will be able to speak freely about sexual orientation and gender identity in Florida classrooms, provided it's not part of instruction.

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In the article 25 years after Columbine, trauma shadows survivors of the school shooting by ABC News talks about the experiences of Columbine High School shooting survivors. The stories the survivors share uncover years of trauma and PTSD that impact them on a daily basis. The article also shows research about the long term effects of gun violence which result in absenteeism, reduced college enrollment, and lower earnings. The survivors created a support group for each other called the Rebels Project. The survivors also noted that it was hard to see themselves as survivors since they were not physically injured. As someone who plans to work in a public school, the threat of a school shooting is a real. It is important when teaching health to teach about mental health and get students the support they need. As a teacher it is important to know about this so that you can be prepared for the worst.

Slevin C. (2024, April 17).25 years after Columbine, trauma shadows survivors of the school shooting. ABC News. Retrieved April 23, 2024, from

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DENVER -- Hours after she escaped the Columbine High School shooting, 14-year-old Missy Mendo slept between her parents in bed, still wearing the shoes she had on when she fled her math class. She wanted to be ready to run.

Twenty-five years later, and with Mendo now a mother herself, the trauma from that horrific day remains close on her heels.

It caught up to her when 60 people were shot dead in 2017 at a country music festival in Las Vegas, a city she had visited a lot while working in the casino industry. Then again in 2022, when 19 students and two teachers were shot and killed in Uvalde, Texas.

Mendo had been filling out her daughter's pre-kindergarten application when news of the elementary school shooting broke. She read a few lines of a news story about Uvalde, then put her head down and cried.

"It felt like nothing changed," she recalls thinking.

In the quarter-century since two gunmen at Columbine shot and killed 12 fellow students and a teacher in suburban Denver - an attack that played out on live television and ushered in the modern era of school shootings - the traumas of that day have continued to shadow Mendo and others who were there.

Some needed years to view themselves as Columbine survivors since they were not physically wounded. Yet things like fireworks could still trigger disturbing memories. The aftershocks - often unacknowledged in the years before mental health struggles were more widely recognized - led to some survivors suffering insomnia, dropping out of school, or disengaging from their spouses or families.

Survivors and other members of the community plan to attend a candlelight vigil on the steps of the state's capitol Friday night, the eve of the shooting's anniversary.

April is particularly hard for Mendo, 39, whose "brain turns to mashed potatoes" each year. She shows up at dentist appointments early, misplaces her keys, forgets to close the refrigerator door.

She leans on therapy and the understanding of an expanding group of shooting survivors she has met through The Rebels Project, a support group founded by other Columbine survivors following a 2012 shooting when a gunman killed 12 people at a movie theater in the nearby suburb of Aurora. Mendo started seeing a therapist after her child's first birthday, at the urging of fellow survivor moms.

After she broke down over Uvalde, Mendo, a single parent, said she talked to her mom, took a walk to get some fresh air, then finished her daughter's pre-kindergarten application.

"Was I afraid of her going into the public school system? Absolutely," Mendo said of her daughter. "I wanted her to have as normal of a life as possible."

Researchers who've studied the long-term effects of gun violence in schools have quantified protracted struggles among survivors, including long-term academic effects like absenteeism and reduced college enrollment, and lower earnings later in life.

"Just counting lives lost is kind of an incorrect way to capture the full cost of these tragedies," said Maya Rossin-Slater, an associate professor in the Stanford University School of Medicine's Department of Health Policy.

Mass killings have recurred with numbing frequency in the years since Columbine, with almost 600 attacks in which four or more people have died, not including the perpetrator, since 2006, according to data compiled by The Associated Press.

More than 80% of the 3,045 victims in those attacks were killed by a firearm.

Nationwide hundreds of thousands of people have been exposed to school shootings that are often not mass-casualty events but still traumatic, Rossin-Slater said. The impacts can last a lifetime, she added, resulting in "kind of a persistent, reduced potential" for survivors.

Those who were present at Columbine say the years since have given them time to learn more about what happened to them and how to cope with it.

Heather Martin, now 42, was a Columbine senior in 1999. In college, she began crying during a fire drill, realizing later that a fire alarm had gone off for three hours when she and 60 other students hid in a barricaded office during the high school shooting. She couldn't return to that class and was marked absent each time, and says she failed it after refusing to write a final paper on school violence, despite telling her professor of her experience at Columbine.

It took 10 years for her to see herself as a survivor, after she was invited back with the rest of the class of 1999 for an anniversary event. She saw fellow classmates having similar struggles and almost immediately decided to go back to college to become a teacher.

Martin, a co-founder of The Rebels Project, named after Columbine's mascot, said 25 years has given her time to struggle and figure out how to work out of those struggles.

"I just know myself so well now and know how I respond to things and what might activate me and how I can bounce back and be OK. And most importantly I think I can recognize when I am not OK and when I do need to seek help," she said.

Kiki Leyba, a first-year teacher at Columbine in 1999, was diagnosed with post-traumatic stress disorder soon after the shooting. He felt a strong sense of commitment to return to the school, where he threw himself into his work. But he continued to have panic attacks.

To help him cope, he had sleeping pills and some Xanax for anxiety, Leyba said. One therapist recommended chamomile tea.

Things got harder for him after the 2002 graduation of Mendo's class, the last cohort of students who lived through the shooting since they had been through so much together.

By 2005, after years of not taking care of himself and suffering from lack of sleep, Leyba said he would often check out from family life, sleeping in on the weekends and turning into a "blob on the couch." Finally, his wife Kallie enrolled him in a one-week trauma treatment program, arranging for him to take the time off from work without telling him.

"Thankfully that really gave me a kind of a foothold ... to do the work to climb out of that," said Leyba, who said breathing exercises, journaling, meditation and anti-depressants have helped him.

Like Mendo and Martin, he has traveled around the country to work with survivors of shootings.

"That worst day has transformed into something I can offer to others," said Leyba, who is in Washington, D.C. this week meeting with officials about gun violence and promoting a new film about his trauma journey.

Mendo still lives in the area, and her 5-year-old daughter attends school near Columbine. When her daughter's school locked down last year as police swarmed the neighborhood during a hostage situation, Mendo recalled worrying things like: What if my child is in danger? What if there is another school shooting like Columbine?

When Mendo picked up her daughter, she seemed a little scared, and she hugged her mom a little tighter. Mendo breathed deeply to stay calm, a technique she had learned in therapy, and put on a brave face.

"If I was putting down some fear, she would pick it up," she said. "I didn't want that for her."

____

Associated Press writer Mead Gruver contributed to this report.

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25 years after Columbine, trauma shadows survivors of the school shooting

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A quarter of a century after the Columbine High School shooting, the trauma from the attack has remained with survivors