SC APCO JUNE TRAINING

A survivor of the 1988 Oakland Elementary School shooting in Greenwood, SC, Shannon Hill is a passionate advocate for school safety and supporting survivors and victims’ families of mass tragedies. At just 6 years old, Shannon witnessed a 19-year-old open fire in her school, killing two 8-year-old girls and injuring nine others. Unfortunately, her community was advised to quickly move on and not discuss the shooting. This resulted in decades of suffering in silence without access to necessary support or resources for her and many others.
In 2005, when Shannon’s oldest child started school in the same district Shannon grew up in, she quickly recognized the vulnerability that remained in schools and started advocating for improved security measures. This sparked an ongoing advocacy journey pressing school districts, law enforcement, and government organizations for better safety protocols and awareness.
In 2018, 30 years after the shooting, Shannon began openly sharing her experience to raise awareness that such violence can occur anywhere and to anyone. With a strong sense of advocacy, she began to address her own emotions that she had avoided for many years. Motivated by her own unresolved trauma and recognizing the significance of acknowledging survivors' emotions, she established an online support group allowing Oakland survivors to finally address their shared struggles together. She has organized numerous reconnection opportunities such as clean-up days at the school’s memorial garden dedicated to the victims and free virtual counseling sessions with experienced professionals to assist survivors and those impacted in managing their ongoing challenges.
Shannon has remained in her hometown where she is supported by her husband and two adult children. She has extended her advocacy by collaborating with the South Carolina State Law Enforcement Division, similar advocacy organizations and research groups to promote her story on a national level, to identify effective strategies for supporting survivors of mass violence and to enhance safety and security measures. Her efforts have resulted in improved security measures and have given a voice to those once left to suffer in silence, inspiring hope that purpose and passion can be found in tragedy.

DeLynn Morgan is a Licensed Professional Counselor with over 20 years of clinical experience.  She resides in the Charleston area, and she serves the entire state of S.C. as the Program Manager for all Justice-Involved Programs within SC Department of Mental Health (SCDMH).  These programs include clinical teams embedded in detention centers, clinical teams embedded in law enforcement agencies, Mental Health Court, and the First Responder Support Team, which is a clinical team that provides behavioral health services to first responders and their family members.  In addition, she serves as the liaison between SCDMH and SC Department of Corrections as well as between SCDMH and SC Probation, Pardon and Parole.  Prior to this position, she managed four different emergency programs with Charleston Dorchester Mental Health Center:  Mobile Crisis, First Responder Support Team (FRST), Crime Victims Counseling Unit, and the Statewide Mobile Crisis Call Center.  She is trained as a Crisis Negotiator and works in conjunction with law enforcement to de-escalate critical incidents.  She is a clinical member of South Carolina Law Enforcement Assistance Program (SCLEAP), Lowcountry Firefighter Support Team (LFST),  and South Carolina First Responder Assistance and Support Team (SCFAST).  Through these programs, she provides EMDR to first responders in Post Critical Incident Seminars and she participates in debriefings following critical incidents across the state.  Finally, DeLynn provides education around Mental Health Awareness to first responders across the entire state.  She obtained her M.Ed. in Community Counseling from University of NC at Greensboro, and she obtained her undergraduate degree in Psychology and Child Development at Meredith College in Raleigh, N.C.