![\"\"](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/09\/1790463741_920_kprc_news2know.webp\")
<\/p>\nKey Takeaways for Families<\/p>\n
\u2705 Parents: Regulate yourself first before talking to your child<\/p>\n
\u2705 Ask what they know before adding new information<\/p>\n
\u2705 Keep communication open — make it clear they can always come to you<\/p>\n
\u2705 Watch for two weeks of behavior changes as a signal to seek help<\/p>\n
\u2705 Teachers: be honest about your own feelings with students<\/p>\n
\u2705 Students: lean on friends, but bring in a trusted adult too<\/p>\n
Start with yourself, parents<\/p>\n
HOUSTON \u2013 Before you sit down with your child, Jiles says the most important thing a parent can do is regulate their own emotions first.<\/p>\n
\u201cYour baby is in a school where you presume that they are safe and something like this happens,\u201d Jiles said. \u201cYou want to be regulated first — tapping into your community to make sure you\u2019re leveled before you enter into conversations with your child.\u201d<\/p>\n
That means leaning on your own support system, like a friend, a partner, a counselor, before bringing the conversation home. \u201cTheir ability to regulate is largely contingent upon the parent or the guardian,\u201d Jiles said. <\/p>\n
How to start the conversation<\/p>\n
Once you\u2019re grounded, Jiles recommends a simple but powerful approach: ask questions.<\/p>\n
Find out what your child already knows. Ask open-ended questions about what they\u2019ve heard, then correct misinformation or gently fill in gaps.<\/p>\n
Most importantly, keep the door open.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe really want to make sure that we\u2019re leaving a door open for them to always have constant communication,\u201d Jiles said, \u201cso that they can provide updates as need be \u2014 because remember, we are the ones regulating the children.\u201d<\/p>\n
Warning signs to watch for<\/p>\n
Not every child will come to you with their fears. Jiles says parents need to know their child\u2019s baseline behavior, and watch for changes that last.<\/p>\n
\u201cAll of our kids are wired differently,\u201d he said. \u201cIs my kid a more shy kid? Are they expressive or not? And when do those things begin to change?\u201d<\/p>\n
His rule of thumb: if something seems off for two weeks, it\u2019s time to act. That could mean a visit to your child\u2019s pediatrician, who can point you toward the right resources, or connecting with a community mental health agency that works with children.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhat\u2019s more important is a parent\u2019s presence in a child\u2019s life and knowing when their child\u2019s behavior is off,and then getting help from there,\u201d Jiles said.<\/p>\n
A message for teachers and school staff<\/p>\n
Educators are not just bystanders to this trauma, they are living it too. Jiles says school staff should give themselves permission to be honest about how they feel.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat is a scary situation, to go into a building not knowing whether you may come out alive or not,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n
He encourages teachers to acknowledge the reality in the classroom, not by turning every lesson into a therapy session, but by being human.<\/p>\n
\u201cAcknowledging that \u2018I too am scared\u2019, or \u2018I too wish this wasn\u2019t a reality,\u2019 and then providing space for the kids to express how they need to,\u201d Jiles said. \u201cThe teachers are people. Administration are people. And it\u2019s a very scary situation.\u201d<\/p>\n
Acknowledgement might look like a moment of silence, briefly stepping out to collect yourself, or simply telling students: I\u2019m feeling this too.<\/p>\n
Advice for students leaning on each other<\/p>\n
It\u2019s natural for teens to turn to friends before adults when processing something scary. Jiles says that\u2019s okay — with one important addition.<\/p>\n
\u201cIf you have trusted friends that you want to speak to, definitely do that,\u201d he said. \u201cBut I would encourage kids to also bring in a trusted adult.\u201d<\/p>\n
The reason: without guidance, well-meaning friends can accidentally spread misinformation or reinforce harmful ideas. His suggestion is for a group of friends to collectively identify one trusted adult they can bring into the conversation.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe want to make sure we\u2019re doing this the right way \u2014 and that we are not coming up with ideas that would actually be harmful to us going forward,\u201d Jiles said.<\/p>\n
Start Here, Houston<\/p>\n
More Stories Like This In Our Email Newsletter<\/p>\n
Copyright 2026 by KPRC Click2Houston – All rights reserved.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Key Takeaways for Families \u2705 Parents: Regulate yourself first before talking to your child \u2705 Ask what they…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":448846,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[154586,56,58,57,2125,49724,154585,154584],"class_list":["post-448845","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-houston","tag-childhood-trauma","tag-houston","tag-houston-headlines","tag-houston-news","tag-mental-health","tag-school-shootings","tag-school-trauma","tag-talking-to-kids"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448845","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=448845"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/448845\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/448846"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=448845"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=448845"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=448845"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}