Cokeville's Real Miracle: Reconciling Traumatic Memory
McCauley, Savannah
McCauley, Savannah
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As the explosion filled the classroom with smoke, third-grade student Jamie Buckley King curled up in a corner awaiting death. Suddenly, someone threw her out of the burning schoolhouse and an ambulance rushed her to a hospital. Her physical injuries consisted of a severe burn on her arm, yet her emotional injuries were much more extensive. Plagued with trust issues for nearly two decades, Jamie was unable to move past this traumatic event, until a friend pointed out that by not moving on, Jamie had died in that school in 1986. This honesty allowed Jamie to reconcile her avoidance of the traumatic memories, inspiring her to turn to religion and begin healing. One of several survivors of the Cokeville Elementary School Bombing, Jamie King, as the others, has coped with the emotional scars of this traumatic memory. According to the Lewiston Daily Sun, this experience emotionally scarred most of the children in the small, rural, Wyoming community. They never forgot the events of that fateful day, and the media's constant interviews only made the situation ever present. As the news outlets celebrated that no lives were lost, survivors had to cope with living with constant fear and mistrust. Many of them managed to overcome this trauma by turning to The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and coming together as a community. Through therapy, acceptance of the media's intrusion, and church support, survivors of the Cokeville Elementary School bombing slowly managed to reconcile their traumatic memories.
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University of Wyoming Libraries
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Education