CARIBOU, Maine — Rani Belanger, a guidance counselor for area students and a disaster mental health volunteer for the Red Cross, recently took a trip to Roseburg, Oregon, to help those who experienced trauma during the recent shooting at Umpqua Community College.
“I provided grief counseling and mental health triage just to see how people were and what they would need once we left,” said Belanger, who was one of four people from Maine to travel to Oregon for the Red Cross and the only person from northern Maine. A total of 12 people in the country from the Disaster Mental Health division of Red Cross made the trip west.
“They called and asked if I could respond to the UCC school shooting,” Belanger said. “I called my school district and asked if it would be all right for me to be out for an extended time, and they were hugely supportive.”
Belanger was in Roseburg for six days, and she worked primarily with UCC staff and students. She also helped organize an event for the first responders.
“People don’t always think of them as being in serious need, but they are. They saw some pretty horrendous things that day,” she said.
A gunman stormed into a classroom at the community college on Oct. 1, shot his English professor at point-blank range, then picked off other victims one at a time, killing eight more before getting into a shootout with police and committing suicide, according to the Reuters news agency.
Belanger also served on a panel for the wives and significant others of the first responders.
“[The first responders’ wives] really weren’t sure how to support them,” Belanger said. “[The first responders] go back home when it’s all said and done, and they have these horrific images in their head that they can’t get out.”
The Red Cross also hosted a community event, which Belanger participated in, where anyone from the community could come in and talk to someone about their experience.
“I was glad I did that, because two gentlemen came in who had seen the shooter just moments before everything happened,” Belanger said. “They had an exchange with him in the bathroom and were feeling incredible guilt about not doing anything more.”
According to Belanger, one of the most significant revelations of her experience was that the school staff for Regional School Unit 39 serving Caribou, Limestone and Stockholm is well trained to handle a threat if one were to occur.
“Hopefully nothing that horrific or tragic ever happens here,” Belanger said. “But if it did, I can safely say that our school district is pretty well prepared.”