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- Sep 30, 2011
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CLEVELAND, Ohio - Ten-year-old Chancellor matter of factly recalls the day gunfire erupted outside his King Kennedy home while he and his father were making sandwiches in the kitchen.
Chancellor says he and his father hit the floor and made themselves as flat as possible until the shooting stopped.
"What did you do then?" a cleveland.com reporter asks. Chancellor just shrugs and says, "we watched a movie on Netflix.
Gunfire is so common in some Cleveland neighborhoods that parents are compelled to teach their children what to do if they hear shooting. And children talk about bullets flying in the same unemotional way that a suburban child might recall a trip to the convenience store.
"A child's nonchalance is what they want to present to the world," said Tony DiBiasio, a child and adolescent therapist, and a lecturer at Baldwin Wallace University's Psychology Department. "They want to look good to others, but it is more inherently a survival strategy.
"Look at the event through the eyes of this 10-year-old," DiBiasio said. "Would you feel safer telling yourself that the gun battle was just like the Netflix show and it is over, or wondering if the bullets will come flying through the front door?"
Young children may not be able to assess the danger as being any more real than what they witness on TV, he said, "but that doesn't mean their bodies are not churning inside."
Parents who live in Cleveland's toughest neighborhoods are scared. They keep their children indoors at night and remind them of what they should do when they hear gunshots.
Asked what they teach their kids, the response from parents is always to stay as low as possible until the shooting stops. If in bed, they are taught to crawl out of bed and lie flat on the floor.
Most of the kids we have met as part of the A Greater Cleveland series -- no matter how young - can recite those instructions.
An even more worrisome scenario for parents is when gunfire erupts while their children are playing outside. A natural instinct for children is to run, and that's a difficult response for parents to override.
Consider the case of Mary Davis' two sons, who were caught in a crossfire while playing in their East Side neighborhood. The boys, ages 10 and 15, first ran for the house, then took cover under a parked car until the shooting stopped.
A terrifying five minutes passed before the boys arrived home unharmed.
Fearing gunfire in the streets, Isaac and Violet Everhart, and their 10-year-old daughter, Tiffany, try to spend nighttime hours in the kitchen or bedrooms at the back of their Slavic Village house. A heavy black curtain hangs across the doorway to the living room, blocking any light that would indicate anyone is home.
Exposure to gunfire a concern for Cleveland's children: A Greater Cleveland
They suffer from PTSD and seldom get counseling.
Chancellor says he and his father hit the floor and made themselves as flat as possible until the shooting stopped.
"What did you do then?" a cleveland.com reporter asks. Chancellor just shrugs and says, "we watched a movie on Netflix.
Gunfire is so common in some Cleveland neighborhoods that parents are compelled to teach their children what to do if they hear shooting. And children talk about bullets flying in the same unemotional way that a suburban child might recall a trip to the convenience store.
"A child's nonchalance is what they want to present to the world," said Tony DiBiasio, a child and adolescent therapist, and a lecturer at Baldwin Wallace University's Psychology Department. "They want to look good to others, but it is more inherently a survival strategy.
"Look at the event through the eyes of this 10-year-old," DiBiasio said. "Would you feel safer telling yourself that the gun battle was just like the Netflix show and it is over, or wondering if the bullets will come flying through the front door?"
Young children may not be able to assess the danger as being any more real than what they witness on TV, he said, "but that doesn't mean their bodies are not churning inside."
Parents who live in Cleveland's toughest neighborhoods are scared. They keep their children indoors at night and remind them of what they should do when they hear gunshots.
Asked what they teach their kids, the response from parents is always to stay as low as possible until the shooting stops. If in bed, they are taught to crawl out of bed and lie flat on the floor.
Most of the kids we have met as part of the A Greater Cleveland series -- no matter how young - can recite those instructions.
An even more worrisome scenario for parents is when gunfire erupts while their children are playing outside. A natural instinct for children is to run, and that's a difficult response for parents to override.
Consider the case of Mary Davis' two sons, who were caught in a crossfire while playing in their East Side neighborhood. The boys, ages 10 and 15, first ran for the house, then took cover under a parked car until the shooting stopped.
A terrifying five minutes passed before the boys arrived home unharmed.
Fearing gunfire in the streets, Isaac and Violet Everhart, and their 10-year-old daughter, Tiffany, try to spend nighttime hours in the kitchen or bedrooms at the back of their Slavic Village house. A heavy black curtain hangs across the doorway to the living room, blocking any light that would indicate anyone is home.
Exposure to gunfire a concern for Cleveland's children: A Greater Cleveland
They suffer from PTSD and seldom get counseling.
