What has happened to our great journalists?

Bang, blood and bucks dominate the news. No more do they consider who hears such news. It's all about profits. Media and social media jumps into the fray. It doesn't matter if the facts are not straight. I was teaching the day of 9/11, and the principal got on the PA system and told the entire school what had happened. It scared the pants off all of the children. They were frightened to walk home from school.

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It matters that another news agency has news, and they jump in with rumours. Twitter is a terrible thing in such circumstances. Parents do not hear news directly. They get bits of misinformation. Man-in-the-street interviews drive me nuts! People spout off, spewing weird ideas, and the journos cover it all. Nothing is withheld. EMS crews spoke off the record, speaking well before the facts were clear. Lies are spread, like the telephone game.

Family members who live at a distance, get false information. Just as when a soldier falls in battle, we learned from Vietnam that there is a proper protocol for communicating soldier's deaths. It is kept silent, until family hears in a kind and safe manner. Then the press jump on grieving family members at the scene.
We need for the investigators to do their jobs. We need to review what people, especially the teachers, did right. Parents complained when we began doing lockdowns in schools. But there is a reason for them. It is just the same as the airlines who go to their checklists for proper and safe responses to disasters. Captain Sully had it right!

Dr. Maggie Mamen, an Ottawa psychologist.

How to talk to kids about violent crime

• Shield your kids
• Don't give them details
• Talk to older kids to ask they protect the younger ones whose imaginations will run

We need for children to be kept far from media reports. Shut off the TV. I have avoided Facebook. I don't need to hear this report yet again.

Kids need to be told that this man had mental health issues. That such situations are few and far between.

They need to know that it won't happen in their school.