After a crisis has occurred, students need help to recover from their loss and find a sense of safety again. School personnel can help that process by engaging students in a variety of age-appropriate activities. The following activities are suggestions. Local schools can adapt these depending on the type of crisis experienced and the school population.

• Ask students to keep journals. Adolescents are more likely to write what they feel than talk about it. Teachers can ask students to put a yellow sticky note on top of their journal if they want their teacher to read it. At one school, following the sudden violent death of a student, the principal asked students to write him letters about their feelings. He received 3,500 letters. From those, school officials identified 300 students at risk for mental health problems, such as depression and self-destructive behavior.

• Facilitate other types of expression, such as drawing, singing, or writing letters to the local newspaper or elsewhere that articulate students' feelings about the event.

• Allow adolescents to express feelings of anger and let them know that they will feel better over time.

• Be sensitive to cultural differences among the children. In some cultures, for example, it is not acceptable to express negative emotions. Also, the child who is reluctant to make eye contact with a teacher may not be depressed but may be exhibiting behavior appropriate to his or her culture.

• Encourage children to develop coping and problem-solving skills and age-appropriate methods for managing anxiety.

• Provide some activities that will comfort adolescents, such as listening to music.

• Limit the number of reminders of the event in the classroom.

• Hold meetings for parents to discuss the traumatic event, their children's reaction to it, and how they can help. Involve mental health professionals at meetings if possible.

• Create memorials where students can attach flowers, poems, messages, etc.

• Provide students with opportunities to help. This can include raising money for the victim's families or helping people who are suffering in other ways in one's community (homeless shelters, battered women's shelters, soup kitchens, etc.). Students can also clean up school grounds, a park, or a vacant lot together. Encourage students to come up with ideas of how to help as well.

• Create a service learning project in which students are given credit for performing service and reflecting on what they have learned.

• Introduce curriculum that teaches children about diversity and different cultures, such as Beyond Blame.

• Plan an event for the anniversary of the crisis with the input of students, parents, faculty, and victims' families. Anniversaries give people the chance to step back and reflect on what happened and the positive steps that they and their community have taken in the aftermath. They are also an opportunity to set new goals for the next year.

References

The Three R's to Dealing with Trauma in Schools: Readiness, Response & Recovery (2002), Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Education

Diener S. Responding to Violent Events By Building Community: Action Ideas for Students and Schools (2001). Cambridge, MA: Educators for Social Responsibility.

Helping Children and Adolescents Cope with Violence and Disaster. Bethesda, MD: National Institute of Mental Health.