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FGCU Counselor Went to Aid Parkland Hours After Shooting

Dr. Abbe Finn outlines clinical mental health counseling opportunities to FGCU students.
FGCU Department of Health Sciences
/
The Florida Channel
Leon County Judge John Cooper on June 30, 2022, in a screen grab from The Florida Channel.

Theand the held a joint news conference Wednesday morning to announce measures they’ll begin taking immediately to begin hardening local schools. WGCU's Quincy Walters joins Gulf Coast Live to report back the district's plans, including one to put a school resource officer at every school.

The funds for the new measures are coming from the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School Public Safety Actthat Gov. Rick Scott signed earlier this month. What prompted Florida’s political leaders to take up gun control and school safety measures this legislative session was the Feb. 14 attack on the Parkland high school of the same name and the avalanche of activism that has followed.

But, in the hours and days right after that attack, Dr. Abbe Finn, an FGCU counselor and director of the clinical mental health program, went to the school to offer what she could — the ability to counsel people after tragic and chaotic events. Dr. Finn joins Gulf Coast Live to talk about the experience in Parkland just after the school massacre.

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Julie Glenn is the host of Gulf Coast Live. She has been working in southwest Florida as a freelance writer since 2007, most recently as a regular columnist for the Naples Daily News. She began her broadcasting career in 1993 as a reporter/anchor/producer for a local CBS affiliate in Quincy, Illinois. After also working for the NBC affiliate, she decided to move to Parma, Italy where she earned her Master’s degree in communication from the University of Gastronomic Sciences. Her undergraduate degree in Mass Communication is from the University of Missouri at Kansas City.
Mike Kiniry is producer of Gulf Coast Live, and co-creator and host of the WGCU podcast Three Song Stories: Biography Through Music. He first joined the WGCU team in the summer of 2003 as an intern while studying Communication at Florida Gulf Coast University.