{"id":36637,"date":"2023-12-07T19:16:30","date_gmt":"2023-12-08T00:16:30","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/unitedresourceconnection.org\/cannon-ball-nd-58528\/kids-look-to-adults-responding-to-child-trauma-50-years-after-gitchie-manitou-murders\/"},"modified":"2023-12-07T19:16:42","modified_gmt":"2023-12-08T00:16:42","slug":"kids-look-to-adults-responding-to-child-trauma-50-years-after-gitchie-manitou-murders","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/unitedresourceconnection.org\/cannon-ball-nd-58528\/kids-look-to-adults-responding-to-child-trauma-50-years-after-gitchie-manitou-murders\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Kids look to adults:\u2019\u00a0 Responding to child trauma 50 years after Gitchie Manitou murders"},"content":{"rendered":"
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A portion of the Argus Leader front page is shown from Nov. 19, 1973.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Editor\u2019s note: <\/em><\/strong>This is the third in a series of stories on children that Jackie Hendry, producer and host of South Dakota Public Broadcasting\u2019s \u201cSouth Dakota Focus\u201d will write for South Dakota News Watch. Each month, she will preview the show that will air the following week.<\/em><\/p>\n

This piece contains discussions of violence, sexual assault and suicidal thoughts. If you or someone you know is struggling, call or text 988 for 24-7 support.<\/em><\/p>\n

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. \u2013 Phil Hamman knew someone died. The rumors began over a November weekend in 1973. He was a sophomore at Sioux Falls Washington High School.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe\u2019d gotten some word in the neighborhood that some kids from our school had been killed, but we didn\u2019t know any details,\u201d Hamman remembered. \u201cWe thought maybe it was a car accident or something.\u201d<\/p>\n

The following Monday, as he got ready for school, Hamman heard four names announced on the radio: 18-year-old Stewart Baade; his 14-year-old brother, Dana Baade; 17-year-old Roger Essem; and 15-year-old Mike Hadrath, Hamman\u2019s childhood best friend.<\/p>\n

\u201cI became physically sick. I went to the bathroom and almost threw up,\u201d Hamman said.<\/p>\n

All four boys had been shot to death near their campsite in Gitchie Manitou State Preserve, just across the border into northwestern Iowa. A couple driving through the park found their bodies the next morning. At first, there was no suspect or motive.<\/p>\n

Hamman went to school to find other students crying in the hallways. All, like him, were shocked and desperate to understand what happened.<\/p>\n

\u201cBut the teachers were starting to get irritated,\u201d Hamman said. \u201cThey were yelling at kids. \u2018Don\u2019t talk about this! Just go to class. No more talking about this Gitchie Manitou thing!’\u201d<\/p>\n

Hamman said he and other students obeyed without much resistance. \u201cIt\u2019s not that the teachers were doing anything out of line. That was the philosophy in those days. You just be quiet.\u201d<\/p>\n

Privately, though, friends talked among themselves about who could\u2019ve done such a terrible thing and why. When the suspects \u2013 three brothers \u2013 were captured, new questions arose. Turns out, there had been a witness: a 13-year-old girl named Sandra Cheskey.<\/p>\n

Sandra Cheskey: The Gitchie Girl<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Cheskey met Essem at a drive-in movie theater earlier that summer, and they\u2019d been smitten with each other ever since. He\u2019d invited her to join him and his three friends for a campfire at Gitchie Manitou the night of Nov. 17, 1973.<\/p>\n

Three men, later identified as brothers Allen Fryer, James Fryer and David Fryer, posed as law enforcement. They shot Essem to death before taking the rest hostage. Cheskey was separated from the others, raped and threatened to silence before one of the Fryers dropped her off at her home late at night.<\/p>\n

The next day, as rumors began spreading in Hamman\u2019s neighborhood that some kids had been killed, Cheskey learned none of the boys made it home. She took her story to the authorities. Despite her fear and the officer\u2019s initial doubt to her story, Cheskey played a crucial role in finding the Fryer brothers. She served as the only witness in the subsequent trial that landed each brother with a life sentence.<\/p>\n

By age 14, Cheskey had witnessed murder, been raped and faced intense scrutiny throughout the criminal justice process. Rumors spread throughout school that she was somehow responsible for the murders. People called her the Gitchie Girl.<\/p>\n

The social stigma remained well after the trail ended.<\/p>\n

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In this 2013 file photo, Sandra Cheskey revisits the site where she and four friends were hanging out when the Fryer brothers began to shoot at them at Gitchie Manitou State Preserve near Granite, Iowa. (Photo: Argus Leader)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u2018For 40 years, I walked with my head down\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Cheskey would later tell Hamman that she wished, year after year, that someone would talk to her about that night.<\/p>\n

Family members avoided the subject, thinking it would only upset her further. Her friends didn\u2019t talk to her anymore, pressured both by peers and parents who didn\u2019t know what to make of the trauma she\u2019d experienced. Cheskey eventually dropped out of school.<\/p>\n

Decades later, she reached out to Hamman with an idea. The two had crossed paths through the years, and Hamman had written a memoir that included his memories of the Gitchie Manitou murders.<\/p>\n

\u201cShe said, \u2018I think if you want to write a book about my life and that night, I\u2019ll open up and finally tell about it. Maybe it can help other people get through emotional things if they can read my story,’\u201d Hamman said.<\/p>\n

With Cheskey\u2019s help, Hamman and his wife, Sandy Hamman, published \u201cGitchie Girl: The Survivor\u2019s Inside Story of the Mass Murders That Shocked the Heartland\u201d<\/a><\/u> in 2016. The book also details Cheskey\u2019s struggles after that fateful November night, including suicidal depression and symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder that followed her for years.<\/p>\n

The publicity that accompanied the book proved Cheskey\u2019s instincts correct. The first chapter of 2019\u2019s companion book, \u201cGitchie Girl Uncovered,\u201d<\/a><\/u> describes dozens of people at book signings shared their own stories of trauma and survival with her.<\/p>\n

Cheskey did not respond to requests for an interview ahead of the 50-year commemoration of the murders, but Phil Hamman remembered a conversation the two had following the release of \u201cGitchie Girl.\u201d During the 1974 trial, a lawyer advised young Cheskey to keep her head down so journalists posted outside the courthouse couldn\u2019t get a good photo of her.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd she said, \u2018Phil, for 40 years I\u2019ve walked with my head down,’\u201d Hamman remembered. \u201c\u2018Now I can finally start walking with my head up.\u2019 So how important for her emotional state of mind to finally share that story.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018Children look to adults on how to respond\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Phil Hamman recently retired from 40 years as a public school teacher, mostly in Sioux City, Iowa. He\u2019s witnessed how much things have changed since crisis struck his sophomore year.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s slowly evolved from, \u2018You don\u2019t talk about this,\u2019 to, \u2018You need to talk about this.\u2019 I\u2019ve taught in big schools, and it seems like something tragic happens every year,\u201d he said. \u201cAny time (we lose a student) there\u2019s an army of counselors that will come in and be ready to talk to teachers that are upset, and students.\u201d<\/p>\n

Talking through loss and trauma can mitigate mental health impacts in many cases. Kari Oyen is director of the school psychology program at the University of South Dakota, the only school psychology program in the state.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s not a matter of if a crisis will touch a particular school population but when, she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think what\u2019s so critical for adults to know is that kids look to adults on how to respond,\u201d Oyen said. \u201cThat\u2019s why when we see someone who\u2019s calm in front of us telling us, \u2018Here\u2019s the things that you can do. Here\u2019s how we are going to get through this next phase,\u2019 that\u2019s very comforting and actually limits the impact of stress.\u201d<\/p>\n

Oyen said staying silent can have the opposite effect, as Cheskey experienced.<\/p>\n

\u201cAdolescents are known for trying to seek rewards and approval from peers. If I\u2019m being further socially isolated from my peers, that can make it so I\u2019m even more vulnerable than I was before,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

In Phil Hamman\u2019s case, learning the truth of what happened the night his friend died helped him gain some closure.<\/p>\n

\u201cI finally got a lot of my questions answered through the research, through the court records, through the police report and through our long talks with Sandra Cheskey,\u201d he said. \u201cWe thought maybe (the boys) were dealing drugs or something, and they weren\u2019t. It was another one of the vicious rumors that went around.\u201d<\/p>\n

Rumors were all Phil Hamman had to help him process the loss in 1973. He suffered nightmares after Hadrath\u2019s funeral.<\/p>\n

\u201cIn those days, if you were a rich movie star or whatever, you might go see a psychiatrist if you were having emotional issues. But back then, a lot of people just kept it to themselves. I kept it inside,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

\u2018There\u2019s not enough help\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The philosophy surrounding responses to child trauma has certainly changed in the 50 years since the murders at Gitchie Manitou. The challenge now is providing adequate resources.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have a lot of kids that are going through a lot of things, and even though there\u2019s help, there\u2019s not enough help,\u201d said Phil Hamman.<\/p>\n

Schools serve as a central resource hub for most children. Oyen said 1 in 5 children today has a diagnosable mental illness, but only a quarter of those children receive any kind of treatment. \u201cOf those who do get help, about 75% of them get help at school,\u201d she explained.<\/p>\n

That help can come in the form of school counselors, social workers and school psychologists. There are nationwide shortages in all three categories. South Dakota is no different, with one school psychologist available for every 1,650 students \u2013 about three times the ratio recommended by the National Association of School Psychologists<\/a><\/u>.<\/p>\n

The shortage is driven in part by the cost of the degree and the cost to school districts to maintain the position.<\/p>\n

The University of South Dakota recently received a $3 million federal grant<\/a><\/u> to address the shortage of school psychologists in the state. Oyen said the grant will include tuition stipends for school psychology students and incentives for districts to take interns from the program.<\/p>\n

\u201cI\u2019m most excited because this grant, more than anything, is going to students. And we know that when we invest in students and when we invest in addressing the shortage, we know that it will have a big impact,\u201d Oyen said.<\/p>\n

In the meantime, a little understanding can go a long way. Phil Hamman uses his personal experience to advise other teachers.<\/p>\n

\u201cYou have to remember the test (students) just took was on the very bottom of their priority list,\u201d he said. \u201cMaybe there was fighting in the home, something traumatic happened. Yes, we want them to do well on a test. Yes, we want them to do the school work, and we don\u2019t want to let them get out of that stuff. But some days they\u2019re not gonna be in a very good place, and you have to be ready for that.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2014 This article was produced by South Dakota News Watch, a non-profit journalism organization located online at sdnewswatch.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/p>\n

How to watch \u2018South Dakota Focus\u2019<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The next episode of \u201cSouth Dakota Focus\u201d airs on Thursday, Nov. 30, at 7 p.m. Central time \/ 6 p.m. Mountain time. It can be viewed on SDPB-TV 1, Facebook, YouTube and SD.net<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The episode includes:<\/p>\n