Tensions were high at Glenbrook North High School on Oct. 4.

The previous day students at the Northbrook school found a message reading “Shooting 10 03” scrawled on a desk. At 8 a.m. the fire alarm sounded and students were cleared from the building. It was a false alarm, the result of an electronic malfunction.

But just 90 minutes later, a second shooting threat mirroring the first was discovered. Carved into the seat of a desk was “stay out of school 10 4” accompanied by an image of a handgun.

Just a few weeks earlier, security at Glenbrook South High School in neighboring Glenview was beefed up for homecoming weekend, with armed police officers standing in the entrance way. A similar shooting threat was found at that school Sept. 20.

While no physical harm came to any students as a result of the threats, they don’t exist in a vacuum. The continuing threat of actual school shootings and the media coverage that surrounds them has created a new set of worries for young people.

Most mental health professionals agree that today’s high school students are navigating an adolescent experience that in substantial ways is different from previous generations.

With unlimited information accessible with a tap of a finger, students are able to immediately access the world around them. In recent years, that world includes regular school shootings.

North Shore mental health professionals say their teenage patients are more frequently talking about school shootings during sessions, and they have noticed an increased amount of anxiety around the subject.

Students with preexisting mental health issues, like anxiety or depression, can be more vulnerable when school shooting threats occur, said Claudia Welke, the chief medical officer and founder of Compass Health Center in Northbrook and Chicago.

“There’s no question that this is a topic that’s coming up more and more with adolescents who have mental health issues, as well as adolescents who don’t have mental health issues,” said Welke, a psychiatrist. “The kids that I see have mental health issues, and they’re going to be a population that is going to be sensitive to anything that makes the world feel more unsafe.”

Along with increased anxiety, there has been an increased focus on vigilance to report school violence threats, said Stephanie Zwilling, a licensed clinical therapist based out of Northfield.

“When something is being covered in the news, kids are picking up on it, adults are talking about it and it’s anxiety provoking,” Zwilling said.

The shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla. on Feb. 14 that left 17 people dead was a flashpoint in the conversation around school violence. Following the shooting, students in high schools across the country discussed and analyzed gun violence, and some even held demonstrations or marched in the nation’s capital. Walkouts were held, including at Glenbrook North and Glenbrook South high schools.

After the first Glenbrook North shooting threat, students were told by school administrators they could stay home for the day if they felt unsafe. About 50 percent of students did not attend school Oct. 4 following the initial school shooting threat, according to district officials. About 10 percent of students were given excused absences on Oct. 5, according to district officials.

Alexandra Kukulka/Pioneer Press North Shore mental health professionals say their teenage patients are more frequently talking about school shootings during sessions. North Shore mental health professionals say their teenage patients are more frequently talking about school shootings during sessions. (Alexandra Kukulka/Pioneer Press)

Dori Mages, a licensed clinical social worker and the founder of North Shore Family Services, said her two daughters attend Glenbrook North. She said they have both told her that they still feel safe attending school because of the security precautions like searching people’s belongings as they enter the building.

Since the Parkland school shooting, teenagers who meet with Mages discuss school safety because “they know that it just doesn’t happen in certain neighborhoods, it can happen anywhere now,” she said. In her experience, Mages said student anxiety around school violence threats also increases if parents become overly anxious about the threats and their children see that reaction.

“I think for the most part though, in this area, they do feel safe,” Mages said. “The staff at the schools and the administration has done a really great job of protecting them. They’re worried, but I think they feel like they’re doing what they need to be doing.”

While North Shore students are dealing with threats of gun violence, students in other neighborhoods regularly encounter acts of gun violence.

Teenagers who live in communities with high rates of violence often have trouble concentrating and sleeping, are more irritable, and constantly worried about their safety, said Liza Suarez, the co-director of the Urban Youth Trauma Center.

The Urban Youth Trauma Center is a federally-funded center of the National Child Traumatic Stress Network that address the psychological needs of youth impacted by trauma including community violence, according to the center’s website. The center helps and supports those who work with youth impacted by violence by offering training and an array of programs, Suarez said.

If teenagers have experienced or witnessed violence, they are more likely to have intrusive dreams or experience flashbacks to the event, Suarez said. These teenagers may avoid certain things or places that they associate with the violence they experienced, she said.

In the long run, teenagers impacted by violence are more likely to grow up feeling unsafe in the world and develop trust issues, Suarez said. Teenagers in these communities also start to lose hope in their future and, depending on the type of violence they experience, doubt they will live beyond a certain age, she said.

“In general, people are very on edge and startled about these things, and it’s hard to go about your business when you’re not sleeping well, constantly worried, not paying attention to what you usually should be paying attention to,” Suarez said.

The programs offered through the center teach teenagers impacted by violence healthy ways of managing emotion, trauma reminders and substance abuse cravings, among other things, Suarez said.

Most importantly, there are programs to help families connect because stress related to community violence, in addition to day-to-day stresses, can pull families apart, Suarez said.

“The kinds of things that I described have to do with kids that have endured all this chronic trauma, but I think that because of all that we see that’s happening across the nation and the accessibility of guns it is a threat for anybody at any point,” Suarez said. “But I also think that it is very important to, on a regular basis, try to think about the kids that might be in distress in general because they are the kids at risk.”