Iowa expert heads to Minnesota to respond to crisis

A member of Iowa’s crime victim assistance division has been called to Minnesota to set up a crisis response team after a school shooting. Last Wednesday, a high school Freshman in Cold Spring, Minnesota allegedly short and killed a 17-year-old senior and critically wounded another student. Alison Walding of Des Moines is now in Cold Spring, managing a six-person team trained to help communities cope with extraordinary trauma. Iowa Crime Victim Assistance division director Marti Anderson, Walding’s boss, says Walding has years of training and has responded to several other crises both in Iowa and abroad.Anderson says oftentimes when there’s tragedy like that in a community, it helps to have someone from outside come in to help with the crisis. Walding will oversee a school psychologist called in from Atlanta and four Minnesotans who’ve been trained in crisis response. Anderson says there’ll be meetings with students, faculty and members of the community. Anderson says there’s an additional layer of shock when something like this happens in a rural communities, because folks don’t think such traumas happen there. Anderson says it’s important to give everyone a forum in which to grieve.Walding is expected to return to Iowa Wednesday night.