Utah Valley University student Kira Goldberg first sensed something was off when she saw the police cars whip past the building where she and classmates were working on a project.
Rattled, another girl in the group volunteered to investigate the commotion. She soon returned with the news.
Goldberg recalled, “She was like, ‘Stay calm. There’s a shooter. We should probably go somewhere where there aren’t any windows.’ ”
A few minutes later, the students were barricaded inside a faculty member’s office, their phones buzzing as they texted back and forth with loved ones, letting them know they were safe. Still unclear at the time, Goldberg said, was whether it was “a shooter or a shooting.” Meaning: They had no idea if this was a targeted killing, as it turned out to be, or if their classmates were currently being gunned down outside.
“I didn’t know Charlie Kirk was speaking on campus,” said the 21-year-old, referring to the conservative political activist shot and killed on campus Sept. 10. “I did not even know who he was before this all went down. But I do know everyone is going to be more scared now.”
She doubts campus life will stop. But she believes her fellow students will be “a little hesitant to have large group events or to have more controversial people come speak.”
That may just be the beginning of the fallout for UVU’s more than 46,000 students, as well as the 35,000-plus attending neighboring Brigham Young University — and other Utah schools, for that matter. For many of these young people with their fast-developing brains, the safety they may have felt in so-called Happy Valley has suddenly been made to feel like an illusion. And that, said University of Southern California neuroscientist Xiao-Fei Yang, has consequences.
Determining the fallout radius
“During the period spanning teenage years to the early 20s,” Yang said, “there is a lot of reorganization going on in the brain and a lot of hormonal changes that…make adolescents vulnerable to dangerous social stressors like the exposure to violence.”
The word “exposure” in this case doesn’t necessarily mean direct witnessing, the researcher noted. “It’s really just knowing that the neighborhood might not be a safe place that puts you into this heightened vigilance almost all the time.”
Trauma therapist Bethany Anderson has seen this play out in her practice in Millcreek, where she works with patients of all ages, including young adults.
“An event like this happening directly to you has a profound impact,” she said. “It also has an impact if it happens to someone you know or your community.”
Neither does it necessarily matter to the mind that the shooting of Kirk was a targeted killing, not an indiscriminate mass shooting.
(Kira Goldberg) Kira Goldberg is a 21-year-old UVU student. The shooting, she said, has left her and her peers wondering what they can do to make the world a better place.
“Different brains are going to be doing different things,” Anderson said. “But my experience is that a feeling of being unsafe isn’t a rational thought.”
Yes, those present for the shooting will likely experience greater fallout than those miles away, she noted. But parents and loved ones should be aware that the impact radius of an event like a public assassination can be bigger than one might think, especially when one adds smartphones and social media to the mix.
“Violent videos,” including those depicting the moment Kirk was shot, “get put on reels that automatically start playing as someone is scrolling through a feed,” Anderson said. Often, individuals aren’t seeking out the images, which come with no warning and without any kind of age filter.
Future focused
For those who tend to internalize trauma, Anderson said, this could make getting out and about difficult, especially when coupled with depressive emotions such as feeling numb or cut off from the world. “Externalizers,” on the other hand, are more likely to respond to traumatic events with irritation, agitation and outright anger.
Not only do brains have different ways of expressing trauma, they also have different timelines.
“There’s no standardized pattern to grief,” Anderson said, “or processing an event like this.”
This can be confusing for loved ones waiting in the wings to support someone exposed to violence. But, she said, “our systems have their own wisdom. When we’re ready to work through something, it’ll come up.”
Once those symptoms start to manifest, however, time is of the essence.
“What makes a difference between an acute response right after a traumatic event versus having post-traumatic stress disorder later down the road,” Anderson said, “is addressing it and processing through the emotions as they come up.”
For this reason, she emphasized the need for college students to take advantage of their school’s counseling centers and other services.
“Our college-age students,” she said, “are going to be in great need of support right now as they work through this tragedy.”
‘Not passive victims’
For those offering that support, Yang, the scientific director of the USC Center for Affective Neuroscience, Development, Learning and Education, has a suggestion.
Focus, she said, on "transcendent thinking,” a term she and her colleagues have assigned to the mind’s ability to make meaning beyond oneself and form visions of a better world. This ability is, according to their research, something of a superpower for young people.
(Xiao-Fei Yang) Xiao-Fei Yang is an associate research professor at the University of Southern California and scientific director for the Center for Affective Neuroscience, Development, Learning and Education.
It is also one of the most powerful antidotes to their exposure to violence, literally resetting the brain structure while helping individuals move past their sense of fear.
“They’re not passive victims,” Yang said. “They are powerful, and our goal is to foster that.”
To do so, adults must create spaces where the young people in their lives can open up about what’s happening around them.
Questions Yang and her fellow researchers suggest include:
• What has this event made you think or feel about the world around you?
• What’s something you wish more people understood about how this is affecting young people like you?
• How do you think others around you might be feeling right now?
• What values feel most important to you right now?
• What does healing look like for you or for the community?
• What helps you stay grounded or calm when the world feels uncertain or unsafe?
Adults should model openness on their own end and avoid pushing young adults to share before they’re ready or shaming them for their feelings. They should also connect them to a mental health professional if they show any signs of distress, disconnection or trauma.
Teaching empathy and critical thinking
As it happened, Kira Goldberg and her peers didn’t need adults prompting them with questions to set this healing process in motion.
“I’ve had several conversations with my boyfriend and some of my close friends about what to do to make the best of this,” she said, referring to both the shooting specifically and the state of political polarization generally. “Because, like, it’s not great.”
For her, the answer is simple: She plans to become an elementary school teacher.
“I’m going to do my best to teach kids empathy and critical thinking,” she said, adding that the Kirk slaying has reinforced her resolve. “These kinds of situations may not go away for a long time, and it’s really important to react in a way that is kind but smart.”