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Illinois School Board Journal
July/August 2006

Surviving a year filled with tragedy
by Linda Dawson

Linda Dawson is IASB director of editorial services and Journal editor.

Death is a part of life, and school districts across Illinois periodically face tragedies during the school year. But for at least one county, the 2005-06 school year has been filled with more than most would want to face in a lifetime.

Since last fall, eight students at Pekin CHSD 303 have lost their lives either in vehicle crashes or due to illness. Just nine miles east on Route 9, Tremont CUSD 702 has lost four students in traffic accidents this year.

Elsewhere in Illinois, districts have faced tragedies and crises of varying proportions, including student deaths, faculty deaths, buildings lost to fire and disruptions due to tornadoes. The emotional implications for students, staff and their families can be enormous.

Finding a way to cope with loss is difficult for anyone. For students, who may be dealing with death or other tragedies for the first time, it can be even more devastating. Having a crisis intervention plan in place can be crucial for the well-being of those who deal with the aftermath.

Over the past several decades, school districts have made dramatic changes with how they intervene to help students and staff, according to Ronald S. Palomares, assistant executive director in the American Psychological Association's Office of Policy and Advocacy in the Schools.

"In the past, a crisis such as a suicide of a student or staff member, death or natural disaster was something to quickly move beyond," he said, "and there was little thought about how it may impact those who suffered through it.

"Today we find schools including mental health crisis teams as part of the process to ensure a sense of healing is able to occur. This has first allowed the schools to develop and implement disaster preparedness and crisis plans, as well as allowing students and staff to receive immediate mental health services when needed."

Using a plan

Paula Davis, first-year superintendent in Pekin, said this year would have been even more difficult had she not had a 20-plus-year history in the district and been part of the group that developed the district's crisis intervention plan.

"We've never had to deal with tragedy the scope of what we dealt with this year," she said. "We develop a plan with the hope that you never have to use it, but when you have to, it's invaluable."

Pekin's plan, which contains both policies and procedures about who to notify, who will speak for the district and how to follow through with counseling, had been refined after encountering problems in the past, Davis said. But sometimes, no matter how good a plan is and what policies are in place, questions arise that need to be dealt with on a case-by-case basis.

Two instances from this year's tragedies immediately come to mind, she said.

In the first, the father of one of the accident victims was insistent that the car involved in the fatalities be brought to school and put out front for all the other students to see. Having no policy that covered this situation, Davis told the father she was not prepared to give him an immediate answer, but asked if they could talk about it in a few days instead. Meanwhile, she fielded phone calls from parents who were adamant that they didn't want the car to be brought to school.

Davis' eventually developed a compromise that satisfied the father as well as those who didn't feel it was appropriate to put the vehicle on public display.

"The car was brought to school," she said, "but it went to the vocational center." It was delivered at night and put in an area of the shop with controlled access. Board members and staff volunteered to help with viewing opportunities on two nights from 5 to 8 p.m., and a letter went home to parents advising them that the car was on the premises and could be viewed, but that no one was forced to visit the wreckage.

In the other instance, Davis said she bent the district's policy on lowering the flag to half staff. "Our policy usually doesn't apply to students. But when the student council came to me and wanted to lower the flag, I allowed it."

Even though a district may not be able to address every scenario, putting the crisis intervention plan into place before it was needed was crucial. Davis gives credit to the district's school board with allowing staff to work on the plan.

"The administration needs to have the resources and flexibility to do what needs to be done … or for that matter, not done … on a case-by-case basis," said Joseph Alesandrini, board vice president and IASB treasurer. "Each of our tragedies was unique and a one-case procedure would not work."

Dealing with grief

In the aftermath of tragedy, school counselors need to be prepared to deal with emotions. Davis said the seven counselors at Pekin tried to make certain that they did continuous checks on student and staff well being.

According to the APA's Palomares, that's a hallmark of a good crisis plan. A typical plan allows for immediate reaction to the crisis and usually lasts for a day or two, at most, he said. "However, a good plan would also include provisions for addressing the specific needs of some groups for extended types of services, such as a grief support group or continuing ‘mental health check-ins.'"

If students were struggling, someone made certain that they were directed to the guidance office, Davis said. If staff found it difficult to make it through an entire day, the district made certain that it had extra substitutes who could step in and take over.

Another resource, After the Storm: Healing after Trauma, Tragedy and Terror by Kendall Johnson, may prove to be a valuable asset for those who deal with grief counseling.

In addition to helping people understand and deal with long-term stress, this new book contains an emergency guide described as "a concise set of directions for stabilizing your family in an emergency." Although references are to family, the impetus for the book, according to Johnson, came from the efforts of New York City's School District 2 in dealing with the aftermath of 9/11.

"Sudden loss can be traumatic," Johnson writes. "Normal reactions to the loss are linked with the shocking sights, sounds, and feelings surrounding what happened and how the survivors were affected. … It's hard enough when the unthinkable must be thought and the unacceptable accepted. When traumatic images and reminders accompany the loss, the result can be levels of feeling that far exceed our capacity to cope."

Because everyone responds differently to tragedy, Johnson takes great pains to outline reactions that can vary from denial to agitation to over-reaction to complete emotional and physical shutdown. Being able to recognize the symptoms of each reaction can help family, friends and counselors assist others dealing with tragedies.

According to Carol E. Watkins, a Baltimore, Maryland, psychiatrist, students who lose a friend, whether through illness or accident, often find comfort in action. In "My Friend is Still a Kid: Kids Don't Die!" she advises teens to join others "to create a memorial or to raise awareness" about what led to the friend's death.

Maybe more importantly, she counsels teens to take care of themselves, citing that adolescents often become depressed and even suicidal themselves after the death of a friend.

From tragedy to action

Sometimes coming face-to-face with tragedy can spur actions that will benefit others in years to come.

Mary Halpin is a psychologist who worked with Winnetka SD 36 two years ago in response to a student suicide.

The district provided immediate crisis intervention for students at the middle school as well as faculty, Halpin said, receiving assistance from other social workers in the district as well as local community mental health agencies. In addition to providing a drop-in center for students who could not be in class and needed a safe place to go, or who wished to speak to a mental health professional, they individually interviewed about 100 of the building's 400 students who were deemed to be "at-risk," either because of self-referrals or referrals from teachers, parents or other students.

"The following summer," Halpin said, "we formed a mental health committee of administrators, teachers, mental health staff and parents. Out of that committee, we partnered with Erika's Lighthouse, a foundation set up by the family of our student who committed suicide and selected a curriculum on depression and suicide."

Following implementation, the curriculum was analyzed by a graduate student from the Chicago School of Professional Psychology, Halpin said. The analysis found "statistically significant improvements in our students' knowledge about depression and mental health issues as well as positive attitudes towards those suffering from depression following this curriculum."

Board perspective

Implementation of new curriculum such as was done in Winnetka and development of crisis intervention plans are both areas that should be delegated to staff. The board's role, beyond setting an expectation for a safe school environment, is to provide the support as well as the necessary funds and time to help accomplish the work.

However, the board also may want to look at the policies that it has in place that may come into play after a tragedy … such as requests to rename a building or a portion of a facility after the deceased. Such requests should be brought to the board for consideration.

In most instances, however, administrative procedures rather than board-level policies will determine what gets done and by whom.

According to Pekin board member Alesandrini, the board needs to keep the administrative staff in their thoughts, providing them moral and emotional support as they provide support to students and staff.

"That may be the largest responsibility of the board, other than providing resources to handle the procedures the administration needs to put in place," he said.

Beyond that, the board should let the administration, as those closest to the situation, do what's best for students and staff without second guessing their decisions.

APA's Palomares added that one of the most important aspects is for the board to make certain that crisis intervention plans are kept up-to-date and that staff know where and what they are.

"I would also urge school boards to acknowledge the tremendous mental health services they already have, based on the school psychologists, counselors and social workers employed in their schools," Palomares said. "These individuals can become crucial first-responders when there is a crisis, and I would hope schools allow them to do that.

"Finally, and I feel this is very important," he added, "I believe school boards should consider how their schools can help build resilience in their students and staff. Resilience is the ability to adapt well to adversity, trauma, tragedy, threats or even significant sources of stress.

"The American Psychological Association has created numerous resources that schools can use to help students and staff become more resilient, allowing them to be able to weather the inevitable hardships and crises they will encounter."

More information is available on the APA's Web site at www.apahelpcenter.org/ ; resilience materials are located at http://www.apahelpcenter.org/featuredtopics/feature.php?id=39.

References

Kendall Johnson, After the Storm: Healing after trauma, tragedy and terror, Hunter House Publishers Inc., Alameda, California, 2006

Carol E. Watkins, "My Friend is Still a Kid: Kids Don't Die!" www.ncpamd.com.