NCJ Number
182585
Date Published
2000
Length
58 pages
Annotation
This is a guidebook to help school principals lead effectively and sensitively when a death occurs in the school community.
Abstract
The book discusses the principal’s role in helping grieving students and staff, the importance of having a plan and elements of the plan. Responding to a death in a school involves setting up a crisis response team, which is responsible for confirming the death and for informing staff, students, and parents. Staff issues may include such responsibilities as dealing with the media. The team also plans schedules and activities for the first school day and week and provides safety measures and special services for students. Those services may include modeling and facilitating grief, memorializing the person who died and discussing grief responses. In this regard the book examines six principles of grieving: (1) Grief is a natural reaction to loss; (2) Each student’s experience is unique; (3) There are no “right” and “wrong” ways to grieve; (4) Every death is unique and will be experienced by students in different ways; (5) The grieving process is influenced by many factors; and (6) Grieving never ends; it is not something the student will “get over.” Appendixes, resources