Page 170 - Creating Spiritual and Psychological Resilience

Collaboration in Working With Children Affected by Disaster 139

help, compared to the supposed legal innocence of not knowing about
a problem. A solution here can be for the concerned individual (parent,
school personnel) to consult with lawyers and clergy in the community
on the legal and moral aspects of this issue or to join the school board and
to urge the administration to listen to all sides of the issue. In addition,
peer screening programs can run up against norms against tattling. In
that case, social education programs can be developed, with the help of
mental health professionals and spiritual care providers, to address moral
issues around helping versus tattling.
Schools should be guided to decide on and implement procedures
intended to create a number of desirable outcomes after a disaster, such as

• Plans for emergency pickup of children from the school.
• Communication with students regarding the nature of the disaster as it
occurs and regarding reasons for steps taken to ensure their safety.
• Decisions about limiting the exposure of students in school to televi-
sion, radio, and Internet, especially in grade school.
• Efforts to maintain a sense of calm.

Conflict can arise when school staff cannot keep to familiar procedures.
For example, some school security officials were upset on 9/11 when par-
ents picking up their children in the middle of the day ignored proce-
dures for signing children out. The parents’ well-intended actions made
the school staff feel all the more helpless as their authority and roles were
ignored. To handle this common problem, school administration officials
should meet with all school staff in the days immediately after the disaster,
with the goal of briefing the staff on what happened and debriefing them
on their reactions. Staff should be given the chance to express their emo-
tional reactions to not being able to act within their usual roles, and these
reactions should be normalized and respected.

Collective Events in the School-Based Setting

Students also need briefing and debriefing in the first days after the disas-
ter. Public expression of feelings, including grief, fear, and anger, can be
valuable. Such public expression can occur through commemorations,
assemblies, collages, volunteer work, and political activities for older stu-
dents. Themes concerning the disaster can be worked into the curricu-
lum, contests, performances, puppet shows, masks, music, art, essays, and