Transcript Addressing Death and Grief

*
When Death and loss
impact the school community
*Axe Murder at the
Edge of Campus
*High profile death
of parent
*
*Lock down per police request
*Counselor team heads to the gym
* Write down each kids name and what they saw
*Counselors meet with Senior Admin
*Counselor calls the parents of all the kids
in the gym class.
*Email from the head of School
*
*Follow up throughout the year
* Addressing the fantasy and the reality
* Poems, essays, etc.
*Continued tons of communication from
Admin to parents
*Extended Time off for the Teacher who
witness and managed the initial response
*
*What we did well
*Focus on communication
*Lots of communication and
interaction with kids ongoing
*What we could have done better
*Better Training for Staff
*
* ART: create collages
* HISTORY: put event in historical context
* ENGLISH: journaling or poetry
* SCIENCE: understanding brain chemistry
causing psychotic bipolar
* MATH: maps area of incident
* MUSIC: relaxation music to manage stress
* GYM: yoga
*
* No written Crisis response
* Senior Admin have lots of experience so there
is a protocol
* Tom calls mary 10 minutes after the death
* We ask permission for all communication
* Tons of communication
* Head of school writes and edit and reviews by
3-4 people
*
* Anniversary was also a challenge
* Many middle school kids traumatized ie. What if my
mother was killed or died as many have no
experience with death
* Could that happen to me
* Lots of loose talk about death
* Between May 2012 abd April 2013 we had 7 parents
die including Kathy Goertzen
* SAAS has 3 permanent counselors
* Our media spokesperson, former Seattle Sonics
Media man
*
* Need more training in how to communicate
with students in crisis events, particularly for
MS students
* Many of our young exuberant staff have great
relationships with younger kids but don’t have
skills for crisis mode.
* Need to learn to Hear, care and listen then
become part of the counselor team
* Should have a written crisis plan
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