WOOD COUNTY SCHOOLS
CRITICAL INCIDENT
RESPONSE PLAN
April 2013
“Knowing how to respond quickly and efficiently in a crisis is critical to ensuring the safety of our schools and students. The midst of a crisis is not the time to start figuring out who ought to do what. At that moment, everyone involved – from top to bottom – should know the drill and each other.”
Margaret Spellings
2007 Secretary
U. S. Department of Education
Table of Contents
Introduction Page 5
3 R’s of School Crisis and Disasters 6
Critical Incident Response Components 7
Groundwork for Critical Incident Response Plan 8
Critical Incident Response Team 8
Defining a Critical Incident 9
Implementation of Plan 10
Initial Notification and Communication 11
Assembly of Critical Incident Response Team 11
Critical Incident Response Team Tasks and Agenda 13
Identification of Distressed Students and Staff 14
Counseling and Support 15
All-Staff Meetings and Staff Support 16
Media Procedures 18
List of Appendices
I. Critical Incident Response Team 21
II. Guidelines for CIR Team Members 22
III. Secretaries / Receptionists on CIR 24
IV. Checklist of CIR Implementation Plan 24
V. Guidelines for Identifying Student / Staff Who May Be At Risk 28
VI. Critical Incident Verification 29
VII. Telephone Chain 30
VIII. Sample Classroom Announcement 31
IX. Identification of At-Risk Students 32
X. Crisis Aftermath Student Referral Form 33
XI. Student Contact Form 34
XII. Resources for Referral 35
XIII. Sample Letter to Parents 36
XIV. Safeguarding the Student, Facility or Staff Belongings 37
XV. Re-Arranging the Classroom of the Victim 38
XVI. Suggested Media Guidelines 39
XVII. Wood County Mental Health Agencies Agreement 40
XVIII. Critical Incident Defusing 41
XIX. Critical Incident Stress Debriefing 42
XX. Debriefing Model 43
XXI. Debriefing the Debriefers 44
RESOURCE SECTION
Crisis Counseling
Staff Resources
Parent Resources
Student Resources
Grief Counseling
Memorials
Special Circumstances
Tornados
School Shooting
Crisis Box
Media Guidelines
Book List
Lifeline Online Prevention Manual
INTRODUCTION
This document describes a systematic plan for responding to critical incidents that threaten the psychological well being of students and/or staff. The Wood County Critical Incident Response Plan (formerly referred to as Postvention Plan) was developed in 1990 by a committee of Wood County educational and mental health professionals. It is designed to assist with decision making and service delivery in the event of a suicide, sudden death, or other critical incident affecting the school community. The plan was adopted by all Wood County school districts in 1990, and has been implemented on a countywide basis since then.
This plan was revised in 1999, 2002, 2004 and in 2013 to incorporate changes in the service-delivery structure and personnel of schools and community mental health organizations. Revisions also reflect advances in knowledge and experience.
Within the last twenty-three years, students and staff at Wood County schools have been affected by several traumatic incidents involving members of the school community. These have included deaths resulting from auto accidents, suicides, murders, domestic violence assaults, terminal illness, house fires, tornadoes, and the sudden, unexpected deaths of students and staff during the school day itself.
In each case the affected school district was faced with at least four difficult problems. The school needed to: provide emergency counseling and mental health services to students and staff; support the victim’s family and plan the school’s level of participation in memorial services; respond to parent and community concerns about the event; and respond to media inquiries. These problems are complex, often involve competing concerns, and tax the resources of the district.
This plan describes the activities of a trained critical incident response team, composed of both community and school professionals, to be available for immediate and comprehensive assistance in response to emergencies. The team helps the school implement a series of critical procedures to assist students and staff with stress management, coping, crisis resolution and return to normal functioning. Special attention is provided to identifying and assisting severely distressed individuals. Team members provide consultation, technical assistance, and intervention, and help mobilize necessary community resources.
THIS DOCUMENT MAY BE DUPLICATED
The Children’s Resource Center wishes to acknowledge Michelle Tuite, Elementary Principal, Elmwood and Jennifer Clark, School Counselor, Otsego for their time and expertise in revising the Critical Incident Response Plan for the Wood County Schools, and Judy Knox, for proof reading the document.
3R’s of School Crises and Disasters
A fundamental goal of the school community is to help students learn and thrive to the best of their abilities. Safety and a sense of security are necessary components of good learning environments. Sometimes serious danger threatens a school whether it is man-made or a natural disaster. When a danger is life-threatening or poses a threat of serious injury, it becomes a potentially traumatic event for students and staff. Schools need a plan that addresses the 3R’s, Readiness, Response, and Recovery for these traumatic or critical incidents.
A way to think about your school’s level of preparedness is to measure what you have done to address the 3R’s of School Crisis and Disasters.
Readiness: Readiness is the level at which a school is prepared to respond to a crisis or to an emergency if the crisis or disaster were to happen today.
Response: Response is the total of the school’s resources and skills to take decisive and effective action when a crisis situation has occurred.
Recovery: Recovery is the process of restoring the social and emotional equilibrium of the school community.
Readiness: Before a School Crisis Occurs
For all schools, the cooperation among school staff, community resources, and mental health providers is the most important element of a successful readiness, response, and recovery process. Annual training of all school employees is of the utmost importance to best understand their roles before a school crisis.
During the Readiness Phase, the school must establish effective relationships with law enforcement, emergency responders, health and mental health community agencies, and local religious institutions. With solid preparation and dedicated partnership, recovery, while always challenging, can be promoted effectively.
Response: When a Crisis Occurs
The overall objective of the Response Phase is to calm the fears and anxieties of students and staff, re-establish a sense of emotional safety and security, and begin to restore a school environment that is conducive to learning. The Response Phase is the period during which the crisis intervention team members are activated to implement the school’s emergency response plan.
During the Response Phase all students and staff can benefit from being educated about the normal reactions to danger and traumatic stress.
All students and staff can benefit from being educated about the normal reactions to danger and traumatic stress.
Recovery: After a Crisis
Recovery is the ongoing process of restoring the social and emotional equilibrium of the school community by promoting positive coping skills and resilience in students and adults. The rate of recovery will vary from person to person, depending upon factors such as age, gender, degree of direct exposure to violence, death or injury of a friend or family member, previous traumatic life experiences, and a pre-existing history of anxiety and depression.
The good news is that most students and staff do recover with the support and assistance of caring educators and mental health professionals. The process of recovery is aided when students and staff can anticipate the stages of recovery and prepare for the normal changes in behavior, thinking, emotion, and spirit that occur over time.
In all phases of recovery, schools provide the greatest degree of support when their routines and social activities are maintained. The routine and activities provide natural places where experiences can be shared and preserve the sense of belonging and solidarity so crucial to students and staff after a crisis.
The process of recovery is individual in nature. Each student navigates his or her way through the healing process in different ways. A school’s tolerance for the differences in the time needed for recovery is crucial. (From The National Child Traumatic Stress Network Website Updated June 2010)
CRITICAL INCIDENT RESPONSE COMPONENTS
The core components of Critical Incident Response are:
Groundwork to establish the Critical Incident Response Plan in the district:
Endorse the plan
Establish Critical Incident Response Teams in each building
Promote staff training and awareness
Implementation of the Plan:
Notification steps and assembly of the Critical Incident Response Team
Emergency meeting of the team associated tasks
Outreach to parents and family of deceased
Emergency Faculty/Staff meeting
Identification and follow-up for distressed students/staff
Maintenance and adjustment of school day structure
Provision of counseling and support
Consultation and support to staff
Communication with parents and community
After-school Faculty/Staff meeting
Responding to funeral and memorial issues
Media procedures
GROUNDWORK FOR CRITICAL INCIDENT RESPONSE PLAN
1. The district endorses this document (the Wood County Schools Critical Incident Response Plan) as the core of its plan for responding to critical incidents that affect the well-being of students and staff. The plan contains guidelines for content (what to do), process (how to do it), and roles (who should do what).
2. The district appoints a standing Critical Incident Response Team for each building that is available for immediate assembly in response to a critical incident. The team shall include both internal (school district staff) and external (community mental health professionals) members (SEE APPENDIX I).
Internal team members. Each Wood County school district shall appoint staff or specialists to serve as members on the team. Each school building should have its own team. Some team members (e.g., specialists, such as school psychologists) may serve as members of more than one building team. The team membership should include school representatives such as:
- an administrative decision-maker (superintendent or designee, building principal, vice-principal);
- school specialists who provide counseling-related services (school psychologist, school nurse, guidance counselor);
- (for schools contracting for these services) on-site mental health therapists (Children’s Resource Center School-Based Services) or drug/alcohol prevention specialists (Wood County Educational Service Center Prevention Specialists);
- other faculty/staff with related skills and interests.
External team members. In the event that the magnitude or impact of a particular critical incident requires additional expertise or resources, the school district may invite the participation of a standing external team composed of community psychologists and mental health professionals. The community members act as consultants, providing support and resources, and serving as links to other relevant services in the community. The external team members are representatives from:
- Children’s Resource Center (Ann Huss, Suicide Prevention Consultant, Noelle Duvall, Chief Clinical Officer or designee, 419-352- 7588);
- Bowling Green State University Psychological Services Center (Dr. Eric Dubow, 419-372-2301 or designee);
- Behavioral Connections of Wood County [Scott Acus, Outpatient Program Manager 419-352-5387, Pamela Hines-Dunn, Crisis Coordinator and Hotline-The Link or designee, 1-800-472-9411).
3. The district promotes training and support for Critical Incident Response Team members. The district will permit and encourage opportunities for relevant skill development for internal team members. These include initial training, periodic refresher training, and networking/consultation with external team members and teams from other districts.
4. CRC, BGSU (PSC), and WCESC offer training, consultation and networking: opportunities for Critical Incident Response Team members. External team members from Children’s Resource Center and BGSU’s Psychological Services Center will provide training and consultation. The Wood County Educational Services Center will facilitate networking and resource sharing across participating Wood County school districts.
5. The district appoints an internal team Critical Incident Response coordinator to:
- coordinate the activities of the district’s CIR Team(s);
- update team membership annually;
- educate school staff about when and how to implement the Critical Incident Response Plan;
- inform new district administrators of the plan and provide relevant training;
- network with external team members and teams from other districts.
5. The district provides necessary information about the CIR Plan to faculty and staff: On at least an annual basis, the district provides to all staff (through brief staff meeting presentations and written handouts) a description of the Critical Incident Response Plan. The information includes:
- An overview of the plan;
- Membership of the Critical Incident Response Team;
- How staff identify critical incidents, and how they report them to the building Critical Incident Response Team;
- Building and district procedures for activation of the emergency phone chain, or other emergency communication procedures.
7. Duty, Responsibility and Liability: A school district can be held liable and responsible for a student’s death if negligence is legally determined. School districts, administrators, educators, and staff may be held liable for a student’s suicidal behavior when there was knowledge that a student could potentially harm him/herself and when action was not taken to prevent such a tragedy. It should be noted that under the Family Educational and Privacy Rights Act of 1974 (FERPA), an exception to maintaining confidentiality is if a student is believed to be experiencing a suicidal crisis or has expressed suicidal thoughts. In these cases, confidentiality must be breached to protect the student. Researchers indicate that the best way to guard against legal difficulties is to have a written school policy that is known and followed by all school personnel. This policy should include issues such as confidentiality, suicide prevention methods, intervention strategies, and postvention strategies. It is also recommended that the policy be reviewed by an attorney. Another important protective strategy is to keep accurate and up to date records about students potentially at risk for suicidal behavior and explicitly indicate any actions that were taken by the school staff.
(Further detail available at in “School-Based Youth Suicide Prevention Guide” published by the Louis de la Parte Florida Mental Health Institute;
http://www.fmhi.usf.edu/institute/pubs/bysubject.html )
DEFINING A SCHOOL CRITICAL INCIDENT
What is a critical incident? A critical incident is an intensely stressful event that threatens to override normal human capacity to cope. Critical incidents are sometimes referred to as traumatic events. The impact of a critical incident may threaten the well being of an individual, a group, a classroom, a school, or an entire school district community.
Examples of school critical incidents include (but are not limited to):
- student/staff death or severe injury in an automobile accident
- student/staff suicide
- murder of a student/staff
- accidental gunshot wound
- shooting or assault (physical or sexual)at school
- death or severe injury on school property
- allegations of student physical or sexual abuse by a school staff member
- domestic violence assaults