Crisis Protocol-Death of Student

Crisis Protocol: Death of a Student

Principal Should Contact:  School Counseling Director o Determine location/s for grief counseling. The library is usually a good choice. Auditorium or cafeteria are not good options.  Crisis/Safety Chair o Set up crisis meeting as soon as possible. (same day or early the next morning, but prior to the faculty meeting)  Assistant Principal o Assist with crisis planning for next day. o Initiate phone tree or e-Connect. o Set faculty meeting for early next morning. If notification of a student death occurs too late to initiate phone tree, email all faculty and staff to advise of the crisis as well as the plan for crisis response. As teachers arrive in the morning announcements should be made advising them to check their email for an important message.  Instructional Director  Crisis Coordinator – John Markey 291-6705

Issues to be Addressed by Crisis Team:  Determine connection of deceased student to any school activities and how grief counselors will respond to groups such as band/chorus/ROTC/sports teams.  Check into siblings of deceased and need for contacting other schools for crisis response.  Testing/exams: Should testing be rescheduled?  Draft letter to go home to parents. (Mychael Dickerson must approve.)  Determine: o who will give directions and assignments to responding grief counselors as they arrive o who will prepare sign up sheets o who will check students in and out (sign up sheets) of grief counseling room and write passes o who will go through student schedule and speak with classes. (Typically, this is at least two people—one school counselor and one other school counselor or school psychologist or school social worker.)  Recommend if school counselor follow-up is needed with specific students.  Recommend any follow-up for next day.  Conduct debriefing meeting after two days following the crisis to self-evaluate and make recommendations on what could be done better the next time there is a crisis.  Discuss the issue of what to do with the desk of the student who died. Be prepared to discuss this with the faculty.

Principal develop message to read over PA and prepare comments to faculty:  Talking points for initial faculty meeting: o Review what happened and facts of situation. o Review what the day will look like. For example: School counselor and psychologist will go through schedule of deceased student to talk with the class. o Discuss what teachers should say to students about the incident? o Share the procedure for referring grieving students and where will they be sent? o Comment about letter going home, if sent. (Mychael Dickerson must approve the letter.) o Make faculty aware that coverage will be available for their class if they need a break. o Alert staff to after school faculty meeting to debrief about the day.

 Talking Points for After School Faculty Meeting: o Ask for feedback on how the day went. o Ask what went well and what could have been done better? o Ask what can be done tomorrow that we missed today? o Ask for names of students who refused to see a counselor today for follow-ups by school counselors.