Anyone who flies knows the emergency preparedness routine: Flight attendants describe how to fasten seatbelts, indicate where the exits are located, and advise passengers that in the event of an emergency they should take their own oxygen masks and place them over their faces before helping small children with their masks. This last step is crucial, because adults cannot provide aid to children until they help themselves.
Unfortunately, this fact is often lost on officials managing the aftermath of traumatic events in schools. “In a crisis, you want to get help for your teachers first,” says Stephen Brock, an associate professor of school psychology at the California State University at Sacramento. Administrators and teachers need to handle these situations appropriately, Brock says, “because your role is essential to helping your students cope with trauma.”
But helping faculty during and after a crisis is seldom easy. School leaders—administrators and teachers—face a variety of challenges following a school crisis. Sometimes, they find themselves in situations where they will be criticized no matter what steps they take, and this adds to the stress. Experts say that the best thing administrators can do is support their staff and openly acknowledge the necessity of dealing with their feelings.
Recent high-profile school shootings have focused public attention on the importance of handling crises appropriately. However, most traumatic events that affect schools do not involve violence; they involve the normal tragedies of life. “Every day, you have bus accidents, children and parents who die suddenly, and a whole host of other incidents that can affect not only children but those who serve them,” says Ted Feinberg, assistant executive director of the National Association of School Psychologists in Bethesda, Md. “These other events are far more likely to [occur] than school shootings.”
The painful emotions students and faculty members experience as a result of school-related tragedies are compounded when such tragedies coincide with holidays and celebrations. “We had one situation that became emblazoned on my mind,” Feinberg says. A group of high school students decided to commemorate graduation by celebrating all night. After attending some parties, the group headed up into the Adirondacks, where “they proceeded to drink themselves silly,” Feinberg recalls. At 5 a.m., several boys decided to go mountain climbing, and one student slipped and fell 100 feet to his death. When the superintendent called, Feinberg says, “it was a lovely Sunday afternoon in June, and what I remember most about the conversation was him asking me, ‘What do we do now?’”
Feinberg and other officials cobbled together a plan, but the incident affected him deeply. “The whole thing left me with a sense of never wanting to be in that place where the school system and I were unprepared to deal with these kinds of everyday incidents,” he says. “That's not the time to be setting up a crisis response plan.”
But even when it's not being done on the spur of the moment, putting such a plan together can be difficult. According to Mark Weist, professor of psychiatry at the University of Maryland at Baltimore, the variability of tragedies only adds to the complexity of managing them. “Administrators struggle with being appropriately respectful and offering support. But if you have a student who dies from a suicide, you don't want to memorialize that too much because you don't want to come across as glorifying that kind of behavior.”
School leaders face a delicate balancing act. They must provide adequate attention and support to students and faculty while still maintaining discipline and not encouraging others to follow in the student's path.
Nevertheless, addressing the event directly is crucial, particularly for faculty members. “Teachers often develop strong bonds with students,” says Weist. “Failing to provide educators in a school with the information that they need exacerbates the problem.”
What Matters Most?
The difficulties that follow a school tragedy can be amplified in other unintentional ways as well. For instance, school officials often stress the need to keep students focused on their studies to prepare for state assessment exams. Naturally, exams are important, but sometimes administrators are spurred by an unspoken concern over liability issues: They worry that a staff member might say or do something that parents find objectionable.
In these types of situations, administators may “be criticized no matter what they do,” says Scott Poland, the director of psychological services for the Cypress-Fairbanks Independent School District in Houston, Tex. The result is a catch-22: Administrators not only face criticism for failing to keep students focused on their schoolwork, but also take heat if they focus too little or too much attention on an issue involving so many complex emotions.
As a result, many principals try to avoid addressing tragedies altogether. “They want to get back on track with studies, and they want to leave difficult issues for parents to deal with,” Poland notes. “But when something major happens, that approach just doesn't work.”
Poland cites one example of this aversion. Shortly after the September 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, a principal in a New York school told teachers not to let the children discuss what had just happened. “That's for their parents to talk about with them,” he said. Unfortunately, the school was only miles from Ground Zero, and the teachers and students had witnessed the horrifying collapse of the World Trade Center's massive towers. “This is what I hear over and over from teachers,” Poland says. “They are either forbidden or never given an opportunity to talk about things.”
By prohibiting such discussions, officials may unintentionally magnify a tragedy's impact on faculty and students. “If paramedics find someone bleeding at the scene of a car accident, they don't wait to treat him until he gets to the hospital,” says Mark Lerner, president of the American Academy of Experts in Traumatic Stress in Commack, N.Y. “Whatever happens during peak emotional events becomes etched in people's minds forever, and students take their cues from adults. We should teach them that when adversity strikes, we communicate. That sets a model for the rest of their lives.”
Other sources agree. “In 1997, a young student opened fire on his classmates in West Paducah, Ky.,” says Poland. Like the principal at the New York school, the Kentucky administrator initially tried to dissuade Poland and teachers from discussing the incident. However, after reviewing the issue with his staff, Poland said, the principal acknowledged the need for counseling. “He realized how wrong he had been and how important it was for everyone to have a chance to share their thoughts and feelings,” Poland added.
As a result of the open discussions and other efforts, Poland says, not one teacher quit or transferred after the West Paducah shootings. In contrast, he says, a large number of the faculty at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo., left the school within five years after the 1999 shootings there. “That tells me that those people did not get the support that they needed,” Poland asserts. “That can make all the difference.”
Thinking About the Unthinkable
Although it's impossible to plan for every contingency, experts say disaster management plans should consider the following:
- Verify any news before acting. In a crisis, details and identities can become confused. Police, family members at school, and affected faculty members should be consulted thoroughly before taking action.
- Make sure your school's crisis response team represents the school or district. Members can be teachers, secretaries, or coaches, and the team should include a custodian who knows the building's layout, security systems, and exits.
- Be prepared to share information. Faculty members need information to avoid being blindsided by questions from students or parents.
- Have a phone tree to spread the word. A formal communication chain ensures that word spreads quickly and accurately from approved sources.
- Be honest about what happened. Be prepared to talk openly about the crisis with faculty and students. If possible, schedule any emergency meetings early to address teachers' questions before the school day starts.
- Communicate with parents promptly. Explain the incident, suggest how parents might discuss the event with their children, and list school and community crisis resources.
- Watch for signs. Symptoms of problematic behavior following a stressful event can include unusual tardiness, distressing dreams, recurring thoughts about the incident, hyperactivity, and avoiding activities associated with the event. “No one who witnesses a traumatic event walks away unaffected,” says Feinberg. “Caregivers, faculty, and administrators are often expected to be the source of strength for others. But they're victims of events as well.”
Above all, school officials should characterize the crisis as something the staff will get through by working together and speaking freely about their feelings. “You really have to have a school family that is in the right frame of mind,” says Lerner. “We can't begin to help others until we help ourselves.”