School shootings and PTSD: Trauma can last for months or years From MSNBC

By Kelly Kearsley

Students at Chardon High School outside of Cleveland are reeling after a school shooting that left three students dead and two others injured.

“It’s just a nightmare I’m waiting to wake up from,” said Mike Wargo, a senior who heard the gunshots shortly after leaving his friends in the school’s cafeteria.

“I can’t even imagine what the parents feel right now,” Wargo told TODAY's Savannah Guthrie through tears. ‘”I wish I was there. I’d rather take bullet for one of those five.”

Neither Wargo, nor most of the high school’s students were physically hurt in the attack. But they may suffer psychological scars of guilt and grief. Mental health experts say the echoes of such a trauma can last for months -- or if untreated -- for years.

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