Crisis Intervention
The term "crisis" implies that an event affects the school community in such a way as to require immediate and effective response by school staff. Over the course of a school year, incidents arise within each school and across the school division which require immediate, informed and effective response on the part of school staff. Most commonly these incidents involve accidents with injuries, acts of violence, terminal illnesses and actual deaths.
The death of a member of the school community can have a profound effect. When implementing counseling procedures, one needs to be particularly sensitive to those who were most closely associated with the person who died. There is also a need to be sensitive to varying attitudes toward death. Obviously religious feelings are a factor. Less obvious are those situations where people have already experienced the recent death or terminal illness of a relative or friend. Among children, attitudes about death will vary with age and experience with the death and bereavement.
Every death within the school community does not constitute a crisis. The emotional impact on the school community and the amount of bereavement support needed for teachers and students differs with each death. Variables such as the age of the deceased, the cause of death, the status of the deceased within the school and degree to which the death was anticipated, contribute to the amount of grief which will need to be resolved. The school principal, with the assistance of a crisis support team, is in the best position to assess the needs of the school and coordinate the necessary supports to address the situation. This handbook was developed to assist school building administrators in the event of the death of a student or staff member. There is also an appendix that addresses suicide and suicide prevention. Somewhat less common are natural disasters, bomb threats, etc. Guidelines for dealing with these occurrences are available in other school system handbooks and procedure manuals.