HIGHLAND PARK, Ill. — The high school students had come to understand they might experience a mass shooting one day, maybe in the classroom, like the drills they’d done before. But they didn’t think it would happen outdoors, while many of them were part of a parade.
Just before bullets from a semiautomatic rifle ripped into concrete, glass windows and their neighbors’ flesh, the Highland Park High School marching band was providing the soundtrack for the Fourth of July celebration. Then they dropped their instruments and ran.
Meeting Thursday at their school with two psychologists, some of the teenagers who participated in the parade said they felt guilty, and wished they’d done more to help others escape.
“It’s a natural feeling when people go through traumatic experiences,” said school psychologist Casey Moravek, who shared aspects of the counseling session with The Washington Post. “But to hear guilt from people who should not have been put through this in the first place — the fact that they have this negative feeling about themselves — is heartbreaking.”
In the days since Monday’s mass shooting, which killed seven and injured more than 40, Highland Park community leaders and advocates have focused on addressing the psychological toll on children and teenagers touched by the violence.
Both the parade and the crowd of onlookers included hundreds of youngsters of all ages. The community’s schools and churches have been converted into therapy resource centers for families...
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