Clinical therapist weighs in on Fitzgerald High School stabbing

WARREN, Mich. (WJBK) - A horrifying crime will likely have an effect on many kids at Fitzgerald High School after a student was stabbed to death by another teen in a classroom Wednesday.

It's hard to imagine what would possess one person to take another's life, but Dr. Sabrina Jackson says its on all of us to a better job assessing and treating signs of mental illness, and sometimes as a parent it means coming to hard conclusions. 

"Often times as parents, we don't want to say that our children have an issue or a problem, but they might have an issue or a problem, and if they're not addressed we see the end result," she said.

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And for parents out there she recommends taking privacy, especially when it comes to social media out of the equation. 

"They shouldn't have any privacy because if this incident happened over some boy, which is something that all of us have dealt with, dating and things of that nature, but you have to have the communication. You have to find out how that child is feeling about maybe the rejection, have the discussions," she said. 

We're told this happened in a classroom with around 25 to 30 other students looking on. Dr. Jackson says the fallout from simply witnessing something like this can lead to post traumatic stress disorder, something parents now need to be watching for. 

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"No sleeping, no eating, as parents, what are my children doing? Because they will need some additional assistance as well as those teachers and the adults who witnessed this," she said.

School will be closed on Thursday but grief counselors will be on hand.

"That's an excellent first step but then we can't just stop there because this may take a long term away to get to the heart of really getting back to a sense of a new normal because now that classroom is a trigger to those thoughts," Jackson said. 

We have also gotten word that at least two vigils will take place here at the high school in the coming days, one on the football field around 1 p.m. in the afternoon and second on Friday around 3 p.m.