*Warning: This story and video may be disturbing to some viewers*

ROCHESTER, N.Y. — Counselors continue to work with students at Rochester’s Franklin High School after police say multiple shots were fired at point-blank range toward students trying to enter the school building last week.

“We cannot normalize it,” RCSD social worker Tamara Sheppard said. “We can’t.”

There is now an increase in police presence at five of Rochester’s schools, including at Franklin High.

“It definitely heightens the concern for social and emotional support,” Sheppard said.

Sheppard oversees the trauma, illness and grief teams in Student Support Services. The schools each have a building crisis team and call upon Student Support Services when necessary.

“It’s kind of our role just to be listeners,” Sheppard said. “But to also assess how is their anxiety? How are they processing this? Because I don’t think people really realize the mental health impacts that situations like this have.”

After a brief lockout, classes resumed – but it wasn’t until video of the incident became public that students, staff and the community recognized the severity of the crime.

“It’s not something that they should have to encounter on their way to school,” Sheppard said. 

The video is startling and difficult to watch. Police say the suspect chased the student across campus while firing multiple gunshots, cornering him and two other students in a doorway entrance area. With the students pounding on the door to get inside, at least one more shot is fired at point-blank range. However, no one was struck by the gunfire.

“It adds another layer of trauma,” Sheppard said. “When you hear about something that might have taken place that’s negative, that’s one thing. But when you see it and the frequency that things spread and the expediency that they spread online [it] can create that anxiety. The fear. The concerns. The questions. So social media definitely plays a role in that.”

The remote services team has counselors, social workers, restorative team members and people from Pathways to Peace. 

“We don’t realize how something like this triggers things that people have experienced,” Sheppard said. “This could impact somebody that was in a classroom on the other side of the building. 

Sheppard says this cannot become accepted as the norm.

“Sometimes people do get desensitized to things when they occur so much that it’s just kind of like, ‘OK this has happened, now I move on from it,’” Sheppard said. “In other situations, it never becomes normal. So I think it’s kind of an eye opener for us to be able to support our students with how they’re coming into school, with meeting them where they are, sometimes realizing that it just cannot be business as usual.”

Sheppard says the team will continue to work the students, staff and school.

“I think in situations like this, students ask, 'why?'” Sheppard said. “And that’s a tough answer. And sometimes we don’t have the answers. But we just try to let them know that we’re here. We hear you. We’re advocating with and for you for this to stop.”

Investigators say there have been no arrests in connection with the incident.