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In July 1976, 26 children (and one adult) courageously escaped from a partially buried box trailer after being abducted and held for ransom by three armed men who had hijacked their school bus outside Chowchilla, Calif.(1–3). Upon reunion with their families, the children underwent a cursory medical examination and were declared no worse for wear by medical doctors and local officials, who assured worried parents that the children were highly unlikely to experience psychological problems stemming from the abduction. A psychiatrist who spoke with parents warranted that no more than one of the 26 would show any lingering effects of the experience. This assertion was deemed reasonable in 1976, when children were widely assumed to be invariably resilient to trauma (4)(despite evidence to the contrary [eg, 5, 6]), and few psychiatrists claimed expertise in regard to the rare exceptions. Unsurprisingly to …