EvCC panel helps students and faculty deal with trama

Students and staff of EvCC gathered in the Parks MPR May 16 and 17 to discuss coping and healing as a community when faced by recent tragic events such as the Virginia Tech shootings, and the continuing Iraq war.

The discussion panel, ‘Responding to Community Trauma: Moving from Tragedy to Recovery’ was organized by EvCC’s counseling center in an effort to respond to the trauma endured by students, staff, and community members in weeks following Va. Tech.

Held at 11 a.m. on May 16, and 5:30 p.m. on May 17, the panel included several EvCC staff and faculty members, along with keynote speaker Jon Conte, co-director of the Institute for the Study of Interpersonal Violence and Trauma and a professor at the University of Washington.

“The best definition I have for trauma is, an over stimulation to the point it exceeds a persons ability to manage it,” Conte said.

Being effected by trauma is a positive and normal human reaction, and that most individuals exposed to traumatic events will experience an acute period of post-traumatic stress immediately following the event. He says however that up to 30 percent of victims of post traumatic stress will develop long lasting effects.

The EvCC Counseling Center has done many things since Va. Tech, to help students cope according to panel guest Earl Martin, director of Counseling, Advising, and the Career Center.

“The counseling center started planning this discussion panel just days after [Va. Tech],” Martin said.

According to Martin, the counseling center also hung the remembrance banners around campus, which were signed by EvCC students and then sent to Va. Tech. They are still offering free counseling services at any time, he says.

EvCC Sociology instructor and panel guest Margaret Riordan called out modern media for creating a culture of violence.

“We live in a country where violence is both glamorized and trivialized,” Riordan said, and called out shows like Jackass for using violence as a means of comedy, and 24 for glamorizing scenes of torture.

“In the week prior to the Va. Tech shootings, EvCC criminal justice students polled students on campus to see if they felt ‘safe’ at school, an overwhelming amount said yes,” Director of Campus Security George Olson said.

EvCC has the smallest professional security staff of any college in the state according to a study done by law enforcement administrators a few years ago Olson said.

“Attacks of the nature of Virginia Tech cannot be prevented by any security device,” Olson said, “Extreme measures are expensive but also impractical.”

According to Olson, the best way to prevent or deal with these kinds of security matters is through planning. EvCC president David Beyer has already authorized development of building plans, building captains, lockdown procedures and active shooter planning, Olson says.