Post Crisis

After a Crisis

The actions taken after severe acts of violence can have a major effect on the well-being of students and the community at large. It is difficult to respond in a timely and appropriate manner without having a pre-established, detailed plan.

A. The Role of School Administrators

1. Support Systems

a. Implement plans for providing qualified counselors, especially for providing Critical Incident Stress Debriefing (see below). Students, faculty, and staff may require both short-term and long-term counseling.

b. When providing information and counseling, take into account multi-lingual needs.

c. Maintain both an information line and special call-in line for victims and their families whenever large groups of students are affected.

d. Keep in close contact with injured victims and/or surviving family members.

e. Determine the need for additional health services and resources (e.g., nursing staff) to attend to increased physical needs of students.

f. Hold meetings to provide staff with information related to the crisis, eliminate rumors, advise them of next steps, and advise them on what to tell their students.

g. Develop written statements for teachers to read in class. Send similar statements to parents.

h. Help students, faculty, and staff deal with their own reactions. Whenever possible, help teachers and staff deal with their reactions first, before they interact with their students.

i. Hold a special meeting with victims and their siblings.

j. Ensure that each school in the district supports siblings of victims by providing them with additional reassurances of safety and academic support as appropriate.

k. Provide places and times for members of peer groups to meet and counsel each other.

l. Designate space for "safe rooms" where at any time, students, teachers, and staff can receive comfort and counseling and talk about events during the crisis.

m. Provide information to parents/ guardians who want to know how to help their children cope with feelings about the crisis.

n. Hold special workshops for students who feel angry about the crisis to express their feelings.

o. Keep parents/guardians informed of the support services being made available to their children.

p. Provide a place after the crisis where parents/guardians can meet with counselors and other adults to discuss ways to help their children transition back into school.

q. Provide a list of suggested readings to teachers, parents, and students.

r. Only after persons who have been directly affected by the crisis have received needed attention, evaluate whether community forums should be initiated for people to air their concerns about the tragedy or other issues pertaining to school safety.

s. Fund additional time for teachers to work with students needing additional academic support due to such problems as grief, stress, difficulty concentrating, and anxiety.

t. Hire a volunteer coordinator to ensure the meaningful participation of parents/guardians and community members in a way that does not use additional administrative time.

u. Provide for the orientation of families who enroll their children in schools where violent events have occurred. Include younger students who graduate into these schools and students who transfer from other schools.

2. Managing the School Environment After Violence

a. Maintain close cooperation with investigating authorities to facilitate completing investigations and minimizing complications.

b. Deal with problems of deceased students' desks and lockers. Have a counselor or other qualified adult provide therapy while sitting at an empty assigned desk, bus seat, or locker. In the case of an empty desk, one strategy is to move the desk, over time, to the back of the row and all other desks forward; then eventually, remove the desk.

c. When appropriate, remove deceased students' names from forms, posters, rosters, absence reporting logs, and anywhere else they occur in reporting systems.

d. In collaboration with families of victims and the school community, evaluate how affected areas in the school site where school violence took place should be handled when students return to school.

3. Memorials, Funerals, and Incident Anniversaries

a. Allow excused absences and time off for all students, teachers, and staff who wish to attend funerals and memorials.

b. Allow for and cooperate with families who are planning memorials and activities to honor victims.

c. Arrange to have a quiet area for staff and students who do not wish to attend memorials and activities.

d. If possible, avoid conducting funerals at the school.

e. Assess the appropriateness of creating memorials to victims on school premises, particularly in the case of religious memorials. If establishing memorials on site would not be appropriate, identify alternative sites, and consider living memorials such as trees as an option.

f. Include students, families of victims, and community members in planning for memorials.

g. Establish a policy for how school administration should handle student or community members' independently establishing memorials.

h. Assess whether families want recognition of victims at graduation ceremonies, at assemblies, in yearbooks, and on anniversaries of the crisis. Particularly at graduations, chairs for those students could be left empty and their names read.

i. Invite family members of victims to all ceremonies and memorials.

j. Plan ahead for the attention the school will receive on the one-year anniversary of the incident.

k. Plan ahead for the emotional needs of the school community on anniversaries.

l. Consider the special needs of families of offenders.

m. Ensure someone is at the home of the deceased victims and perpetrators during funerals and/or memorial services to prevent against theft, vandalism, etc.

4. Closure of Mourning Period and Moving Forward

a. Consult with counselors, teachers, students, and staff on when would be the most appropriate time to signal closure of the mourning period.

b. Conduct a public ceremony to symbolize closure of the mourning period, and control media access to it.

c. Hold a parents' night to bring closure to the crisis.

d. Get school in session and moving forward as soon as possible.

5. Lessons Learned

a. Conduct meetings with school site and district personnel to review lessons learned from the experience.

b. Reevaluate the adequacy of crisis and safety planning based on lessons learned, and make modifications as necessary.

c. Write thank-you notes to out-of-building district and community resource people who provided (or are still providing) support during the crisis.

B. The Role of Teachers and Staff

1. Cooperate with law enforcement to maximize investigative effectiveness.

2. Help victims and other students re-enter the school environment. Classmates of victims may need help in knowing how to act.

3. Provide accurate information to students and dispel rumors.

4. Provide activities to reduce stress and trauma, such as artwork, music, and writing.

5. Alter curricula and postpone testing as needed.

6. Ensure librarians have books available that deal with managing grief and other reactions to crisis situations.

7. Train teachers to be aware of warning signs of grief and depression.

8. Train teachers to implement techniques to deal with the range of students' emotions related to crisis situations.

9. Have class discussions about the incident and how to cope with the aftermath.

10. Be careful of the use of TV broadcasts in the classroom. Live newscasts can be traumatizing.

11. Lower classroom and/or school flags to half-staff.

12. Discuss funeral procedures when appropriate.

13. Volunteer to help victims and their families.

14. Organize and participate in memorials and other activities.

15. Seek counseling for help in dealing with personal feelings about the incident.

C. The Role of School Counselors, Psychologists, and Social Workers

1. Stay in close contact with the counseling director of the Crisis Management Team.

2. Be available by canceling other activities.

3. Obtain the schedule of any seriously injured or deceased students and visit their classes. Also visit classes attended by their close friends.

4. Organize and provide individual and group counseling as needed to students, teachers, and staff.

5. Contact parents/guardians of affected students with suggestions for counseling support and referrals.

6. Locate counseling assistance throughout the community, including counselors from other nearby schools.

7. Establish a self-referral procedure. Make referral forms available.

8. Provide and advise counseling for the crisis team and emergency response personnel.

9. Keep records of affected students and provide follow-up services.

10 Accept other responsibilities as designated by the Crisis Management Team director.

D. The Role of Parents

1. Learn to recognize and help children with their reactions. Common reactions include unrealistic fears of the future, insomnia, physical illness, and becoming easily distracted.

2. Encourage children to receive counseling or to speak to a trusted adult about their feelings surrounding the incident.

3. Consider attending school as needed with children who are very fearful of returning to their classes.

4. Obtain counseling as needed in order to be able to remain physically and emotionally healthy and be available for one's children.

E. The Role of the Community

1. Volunteer time and resources to victims.

2. Provide services to meet the needs of victims.

3. Provide a central location where other members of the community can go to receive information about the types of assistance needed and/or available.

F. The Role of Law Enforcement

1. After a crisis, conduct a thorough investigation including debriefing of all persons present at the time of the incident.

2. Encourage the development and use of regional Critical Incident Stress Debriefing Teams for involved emergency personnel. (See below for more information.)

3. Coordinate with affected schools and other agencies to assist victims' families in locating survivors.

4. Encourage schools to support their employees and students in the prosecution of people who commit acts of violent crime.

5. Encourage law enforcement and schools to coordinate their news releases.

6. Provide schools with a central point of contact in the police department who will answer questions and address concerns.

7. Encourage students and school employees to participate in aftermath debriefings.

8. Facilitate meetings in which teachers, staff, students, and parents/ guardians can express their thoughts on how police handled the incident.

9. Undertake and coordinate critique of the department's response after a serious incident of school violence. Identify areas in need of improvement.
 

 

Critical Incident Stress Debriefing

Following a serious act of violence in the schools, employees, counselors, students, police and other emergency responders, witnesses, and the families of each often suffer from stress-related ailments such as insomnia, depression, anger, headaches and ulcers. These conditions translate into higher rates of absenteeism and turnover, as well as lower school and job performance. Much of this suffering and loss can be reduced if the affected individuals receive debriefings from experienced counselors 24 to 72 hours after the traumatic incident.

The purpose of such a debriefing is to provide students, school employees, and others affected by the event with the opportunity to express their thoughts and feelings about what happened and how it was handled. It also gives the debriefing team a chance to educate employees about the symptoms of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder and to identify individuals who might need further counseling.

Depending on their developmental level, children have different coping skills for dealing with traumatic events and memories of them. Counseling interventions for younger children often require involvement and use of nonverbal material and/or very directive ways to elicit and reflect feelings. Frequently, facts and fantasy are intermingled, and young children have a difficult time acknowledging a crisis. With adolescents, however, a discussion format can be used as a possible means to activate and enhance their problem-solving and crisis-coping skills.