Reclaiming School in the Aftermath of Trauma: Advice Based on Experience

233 Pages·2012·2.53 MB·English

by  Carolyn Lunsford Mears (eds.)

PRAISE PAGE
“ This book should be required reading on every campus, regardless of size.
Recent history has shown no school is immune to random violence. Carolyn
Mears offers a guide to responding to the unthinkable; a practical map to
shortening the road to recovery.”
—Donald Donahue, Assistant Professor, University of Maryland;
former Program Director, Health Policy & Preparedness,
Potomac Institute for Policy Studies
“Carolyn Mears . . . provides an excellent firsthand analysis of the reac-
tions and phases individuals experience on the pathway to recovery. She
also provides a variety of practical and realistic activities to help with the
recovery process.”
—John Nicoletti, Police Psychologist,
Nicoletti-Flater Associates
“ This book has particular relevance to international schools because these
schools are often located in unstable countries or places where the risks are
higher for terrorism or catastrophic events. Equally important to taking
p reventative measures is to prepare for the aftermath of an unforeseen
trauma or catastrophe. By presenting the varied real-life accounts this book
provides a framework for every school administration to ask the questions
that will help develop a plan that is best for each unique school.”
—Katherine Johnson, Director, Human Resources,
Singapore American School
Reclaiming School in the
Aftermath of Trauma
Advice Based on Experience
E
DITED BY
C L M
AROLYN UNSFORD EARS
RECLAIMING SCHOOL IN THE AFTERMATH OF TRAUMA
Copyright © Carolyn Lunsford Mears, 2012.
Softcover reprint of the hardcover 1st edition 2012
All rights reserved.
First published in 2012 by
PALGRAVE MACMILLAN®
in the United States— a division of St. Martin’s Press LLC,
175 Fifth Avenue, New York, NY 10010.
Where this book is distributed in the UK, Europe and the rest of the world,
this is by Palgrave Macmillan, a division of Macmillan Publishers Limited,
registered in England, company number 785998, of Houndmills,
Basingstoke, Hampshire RG21 6XS.
Palgrave Macmillan is the global academic imprint of the above companies
and has companies and representatives throughout the world.
Palgrave® and Macmillan® are registered trademarks in the United States,
the United Kingdom, Europe and other countries.
ISBN 978-1-137-26854-9 ISBN 978-1-137-01082-7 (eBook)
DOI 10.1007/978-1-137-01082-7
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Reclaiming school in the aftermath of trauma : advice based on
experience / edited by Carolyn Lunsford Mears.
p. cm.
1. School crisis management—Case studies. I. Mears, Carolyn L.
LB2866.5.R43 2012
371.7(cid:2)82—dc23 2011040186
A catalogue record of the book is available from the British Library.
Design by Newgen Imaging Systems (P) Ltd., Chennai, India.
First edition: April 2012
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
Transferred to Digital Printing in 2012
We know the world by the stories we are told about it.
Denzin & Lincoln, 2005
Contents
Acknowledgments ix
Introduction xi
Section One: Understanding Trauma
1 Trauma Comes to School 3
Carolyn Lunsford Mears
2 T rauma’s Effect on the Brain: An Overview for Educators 13
Alan Kirk & Steve King
3 Barely Functioning: The Experience of PTSD 31
Paula Reed
Section Two: Learning from Trauma
4 New York Law School and the Crisis of September 11, 2001 45
Jethro K. Lieberman
5 Watermarks: Leading and Teaching in the Aftermath
of Hurricane Katrina 59
Bridget Dwyer Ramsey
6 “Faking It ’til Making It”—A Katrina Story 75
James A. Whelan
7 Voices of Columbine 91
Carolyn Lunsford Mears
• Frank DeAngelis: “Y ou don’t learn these things
in principal school ” 92
• Bev Williams: “T aking care of the children ” 102
• Crystal Woodman Miller: “ Never, ever be the same ” 111
viii Contents
8 Community and School Healing Together 117
Marilyn Saltzman
9 Aftercare: Support for School Personnel following a
Shooting in Finland 135
Nina Lyytinen & Kirsti Palonen
10 Tragedy at Virginia Tech: Recommendations for
Mental Health Response to Crisis on Campus 153
Russell T. Jones, Katharine Donlon, Kelly Dugan Burns,
Kathryn Schwartz-Goel, & Mary Kate Law
11 Burned into Memory: Remnants of Personal Victimization 175
Michael Dorn
12 A Road to Normal 193
Carolyn Lunsford Mears
Section Three: Putting Pain to Work
13 So Now What? 217
14 Resources 221
Appendix: The Gateway Approach 227
About the Editor 229
Index 231
Acknowledgments
The list of individuals who helped in the creation of this book is
long, and my gratitude to each is immense. To the writers, readers, review-
ers, c olleagues, interviewees, friends, and family, I feel so very fortunate to
have your support and encouragement. I dedicate this volume to you and
to others like you who care about people and want to help make their lives
better.
Those who have transformed their own sorrow and loss into the service of
others are truly inspirational, and I want to express my profound gratitude
to them and especially to Gerda Weissman Klein and her late husband Kurt.
Dearer souls never walked the planet.
Thank you, to all who agreed to be interviewed so others could learn
from your experience—including Frank DeAngelis, Paula Reed, Bev
Williams, Crystal Miller, Monette Park, Susan Peters, Mary Swanson, Barb
Hirokawa, Ben Lausten, Kallie Leyba, Kiki Leyba, Krista Hanley, Michelle
Wheeler, Jenn Smull, James Walpole, Bryan Krause, Ellen Stoddard-Keyes,
Mary Pat Bowen, Karen Quiring, and many others who asked not to be
named in print.
A special thank you to Mary Taylor and Monette Park who voluntarily
took on the task of editing every chapter. Your careful reading and insightful
suggestions were wonderful.
Thank you, chapter authors—you graciously responded to my request
to share your experiences and insights for the purpose of helping others—
even though initially to most of you I was a stranger. You have so vividly
communicated the experience of trauma and the lessons that can be learned
from it: Alan Kirk, Steve King, Paula Reed, Jethro Lieberman, Bridget
Ramsey, James Whelan, Marilyn Saltzman, Nina Lyytinen, Kirsti Palonen,
Russell Jones, Katharine Donlon, Kelly Burns, Kathryn Schwartz-Goel,
Mary Kate Law, and Michael Dorn.
Thank you to those who supported this work in such a variety of ways—
Marian Bussey, Bruce Uhrmacher, Susan Silver, Betsy Thompson, Larry
Hincker, Nancy Feldman, Burke Gertenschlager and Kaylan Connally at
x Acknowledgments
Palgrave Macmillan, and Deepa John at Newgen Knowledge Works. And,
of course, my heartfelt gratitude to my in credible friends who have given
ongoing moral support—Mary, Lynn, Sharon, Paula, Barbara, and the
RCS.
I especially want to acknowledge the pride I feel for my sons, Austin
and Brian, who had the courage to struggle in the aftermath and emerged
stronger for it.
A nd, of course, my deepest appreciation for my loving, amazingly
toleran t husband, Connally, who supported this journey every step of the
way and has made my life beautiful by allowing me to share his.
Introduction
T his was a difficult book to write, and you need to know that it might
be a difficult book to read. In the past, whenever I have spoken to groups
about the aftermath of school shootings or other terrorizing events, I have
given a similar caution, for the matters being addressed may tug at your own
sense of well-being and cause you discomfort. How could they not?
I f you are a teacher, administrator, or faculty member, you have prepared
for your career by building content and process knowledge as well as expertise
in methods for facilitating learning. The thought that you might be called
on to lead a school or teach in an environment characterized by trauma is,
of course, unsettling. It’s always easier to avoid thinking of ad versity, but
denying risk doesn’t make it go away.
T he purpose of this book is to help you prepare for the worst that you can
imagine, so if it occurs, you will find yourself able to make the kinds of deci-
sions that need to be made. Whatever your role or relationship to schools,
the experiences shared and the advice offered in this text can help you know
what to expect and, if necessary, respond better.
I have long known that disaster is hard, but only as a sort of distant, intel-
lectual truism. I have always empathized with individuals whose world was
turned upside down by personal loss or large-scale catastrophe, but I never
realized what those words meant until my community faced a disaster of its
own, the rampage shooting at our local high school . . . Columbine.
T raumatic loss now was more than an abstraction. It had a name and
a face, and it walked among us for many months—years, in fact. And in
moments when the breeze is just right, the sky is the same shade of blue, and
a helicopter hovers overhead, it can come roaring back with all its fury.
My younger son was a student at Columbine High School on April 20,
1999, and experienced the assault on his school firsthand. Later, when things
were supposed to be getting “back to normal,” I watched in abject helpless-
ness as he, his schoolmates, and the entire school community struggled to
find their way through what seemed to be a never-ending nightmare.
K nowing that inevitably tragedy would strike again, that somewhere
another troubled youth would pick up a gun to kill his teacher, or a tornado