For children who witnessed Newtown shooting, fear and nightmares line path to recovery

[onehandle]

NEWTOWN, Conn. — A few nights after the massacre at Sandy Hook Elementary School, David Posey heard a strange noise in his house and went upstairs to check on his son. The little boy, who had just seen his teacher and a first-grade classmate gunned down, was pounding on the floor.

“I know where the bad guy is,” the child told his father, indicating down below, in hell. “I’m beating him up.”

Hundreds of children at the school that day survived the shooting, but the horrors have been especially difficult to overcome for some of the 6- and 7-year-olds who witnessed the bloodbath. Among the survivors are a dozen first-graders from the two classrooms where the gunman opened fire with a semi-automatic rifle.

Nightmares are persistent, and any reminder of the attack — a fire alarm, a clap of thunder, even the sound of an intercom — can stir feelings of panic. At the building in a neighboring town where the survivors recently began a new school year, signs ask people to close doors softly and not to drag objects across the floor.

http://articles.washingtonpost.com/2013-09-29/national/42511341_1_adam-lanza-newtown-shooting-20-children

[deutsey]

1. The fractures inflicted by violence extend far beyond the initial incident n/t