It doesn't matter WHY they are there or WHO they are! These shooting victims have rights to privacy that even well intentioned people are violating.

Besides PB, all the "best practices" information among the educators in school shooting cases have said the need for privacy for victims and their families is paramount to their recovery and subsequent mental health after the fact. In fact, the example cited among educators and school psychologists who have done all the research on how to help the students after a school shooting--of how NOT to handle school shootings--is Columbine.

So while I can appreciate that is it might sound good in theory that students who have "been there" might be good to talk to, it is much too soon for that, and the choice as to whether to talk to well meaning Columbine students--after all, they are strangers to the shooting victims--should be up to the victims and their families. They certainly shouldn't show up uninvited in the wake of a school shooting. I don't know if that is the case here or not, because I haven't read the news reports on this yet. But the way this should be handled is principal to principal, not student to student.

This is exactly the reason why the tribal leaders are asking people to stay away.

I mean think about it. If you were in the hospital after a trauma, would you want strangers coming into your hospital as "well wishers"? I know I wouldn't, and if somebody tried to do that to my kid after such a huge trauma, I'd have them arrested.

But hey, that's me. I happen to think the right to privacy trumps the desire of well wishers, no matter how well intentioned, every time. You seem to be forgetting there is a thin line between well wishing strangers, and really creepy gawkers and wierd people who always try and attach themselves somehow to these sorts of things.