The city of Highland Park has released a guide to help residents communicate about last summer’s parade shooting in a compassionate and trauma-informed manner.
The guide, which compiles recommendations provided by the United States Department of Justice’s Office for Victims of Crime, is meant to center the emotions of people in varying stages of grief as community members continue to process and heal after tragedy.
Seven were killed and dozens were injured when a gunman opened fire during Highland Park’s July 4 parade.
Anchored by the core tenet of “do no harm,” suggested by the Office for Victims of Crime, the guide is meant to encourage people to carefully consider the “potential and inadvertent consequences of the words and images” used to discuss the impact of the tragedy, and memorializing the people who were killed.
But its circulation has also prompted some discussion among residents, some who say they don’t appreciate being told how to speak about what happened. Others do not agree with the city’s prompting of people to move away from using certain terms such as “mass shooting” to refer to the tragedy, and the phrase “Highland Park Strong” and “Fuerza Highland Park,” which were printed on numerous shirts, stickers and other items as the community rallied last summer.
The move away from saying “strong,” the guide explains, came from expert input, community feedback and staff analysis that found the term can be counterproductive for some people who experienced tragedies. Instead, the city is encouraging people to adopt the phrasing, “Together Highland Park Unidos,” which the guide explains puts an emphasis on “collaboration and cooperation” that avoids the potential of creating a hierarchy among those who feel strong and those who may not.
A number of city residents told the News-Sun they received the communications guide through an email announcement or text message from the city, and that they would have preferred to have opted in to receive such content, or instead have the city just direct people to its website to check it out if they are interested.
Highland Park resident Maggie Schmieder, who was at the parade with her family, believes the city “missed the mark” with the way it rolled out the guidelines.
But in today’s world, she explained, it is “really easy to quickly judge and offer backlash and criticism,” and she hopes people give the city grace, given the intent behind the guide.
“Everyone is going to come away with a different feeling, and they’re in a different place on the journey of healing and recovery,” Schmieder said. “So, while I really do appreciate sort of this trauma-informed approach, I think it’s hard to apply expert opinion to individual feelings and experiences.”
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Certainly, as another July 4 approaches, city officials know well that the tragedy will be at the forefront of many people’s minds and hearts.
Highland Park City Manager Ghida Neukirch emphasized in an interview that, “this is just a suggested guidance. It’s not a mandate by any means.”
After months of working with the Department of Justice and other experts and units of government about how to best craft the city’s shooting response, Neukirch said the city wanted to share the quality insight it was provided with, and wanted to make sure that other organizations, government partners and community partners are able to be conscious of the community’s trauma in their communications.
Hence the note to avoid using terms like “anniversary” or descriptive phrases such as “July 4 shooting” or “July 4 parade shooting” which connect the shooting to the holiday.
“This is not an anniversary,” Neukirch explained, “it’s not anything to celebrate.”
But the city has also responded to feedback critical of some of the pointers, removing the guidance to avoid “mass shooting” and taking out a section with “do’s” and “don’ts” about which some people shared concerns.
“There was healthy discussion about what should be that suggested guidance as it pertained to the description of the incident,” Neukirch said. “And so we ended up striking that provision that suggested people say ‘shooting’ versus ‘mass shooting.’ Mass shooting tends to focus on the perpetrator … (and) we don’t want to focus on him. But we recognize that every time an incident like this happens, it’s a mass shooting.”
One thing many residents and city officials agree about is the brutal regularity of mass shootings, and the bleakness of having to prepare guidelines for how communities can discuss them as they reckon with their impact in the years that follow the violence.
“Unfortunately, these mass shootings and these experiences are becoming so common, that it’s just kind of degrading our hope and our faith in humanity and goodness,” Schmieder said.
Similarly to community debates that have unfolded since July around a pair of makeshift memorials and this year’s altered parade format, people have differing feelings about what is appropriate and how to move forward.
“It’s really trying for families and communities to get through,” Schmieder added. “What I do commend is that the city is trying. We’re trying to write a handbook for something that shouldn’t have a handbook.”