Grieving and healing: Hancock High School copes with mass shooting aftermath

HANCOCK COUNTY, Miss. (WLOX) -It’s the dawn of a new day and a chance to start the healing process in Hancock County. It’s what students, teachers, administrators and others were doing at Hancock High School Monday morning in the wake of those shootings Sunday, which left two Hancock School District students dead.

“We put a plan in place,” said Hancock County Schools Superintendent Rhett Ladner, which featured 13-14 counselors on hand before the teachers arrived.

“This morning we focused on our adults, our teachers, as they came in around 7 a.m. We need to support them. They’re struggling with it. They’re hurt. They’re broken,” Ladner said. “We’re roughly going to have 13 counselors on site, and we’re also bringing in our team of 12 area ministers. As students came in, there’s a center for them in the library that they can go to, and we’ll be able to adjust during the day to see how we can meet their needs.”

They’ve also been processing what happened with Savannah Davis, a former student who died in a boating accident Sunday. She graduated from Hancock in 2018.

“The main thing is giving everyone an option on how they need to be supported. Some kids like to talk through it. Some kids like to be by themselves, so we’re making both those options available,” Ladner added.

The hope is, down the road, these tragedies can be put in the rearview mirror. For now, the grieving and healing process begins.

“We battle for one another, we support each other, we love one another, and we’ve been through some things this past year with the officers, with Savannah with the students. There’s been many other things, but we’re going to roll up our sleeves, we’re going to support each other and love each other and we’re going to take care of one another.”

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