SJSD’S describes their plan to help traumatized students

By Jazmine Knight

To celebrate the Kansas City Chiefs Super Bowl win, St. Joseph was the only school district in the area to cancel classes so students could attend the parade. 

Unfortunately, with the shooting that took place following the parade, many K-12 students will return to classes with a wide array of feelings. 

Commonly survivors of a mass shooting feel waves of grief, guilt and depression. To help students and staff who are experiencing these feelings the school district is dedicated to providing counseling for those who need it. 

Elizabeth Chase, director of counseling for the St. Joseph school district says they’re expecting a variety of responses from those who were in attendance at the parade. And from those who didn’t attend.

“It’s been so heavily covered in the media,” Chase said. 

“I imagine we will have students who are upset and just like the adults, they are trying to make sense of it. And maybe still are wondering if everybody that they know is safe?”

The district advises their teachers to listen and be mindful of changes in their students. 

“Teachers will be looking for things like if students are coming in and maybe they have a stomach ache or a headache that isn’t really related to anything else.” 

They will also be on the lookout for students that show new signs of anxiety or restlessness. 

“We’ll look to identify those and then they’ll be referred to school counseling or to our school social workers just to check in with those students,” Chase said. 

They’re also expecting a wave of phone calls from parents who are concerned with their child’s feelings towards the incident. Chase says they are more than happy to receive those calls and check in on that student when notified. 

As for counseling strategies, the district understands that children tend to model the adults that surround them. These children are looking to see how adults are coping with the incident and will use that information to model their actions. 

Chase said, “kids worry about is my response too big? Is it not enough? Is my response appropriate? They don’t want to stick out too much and they also don’t want to come off that they don’t care.”

“So the adults…in their lives, it’s important that we recognize that we’re modeling those behaviors. We really just want to give our students a chance to speak. And sometimes just opening the conversation with, hey, how are you feeling today?”

The district is also working to support the feelings of staff.

“Kids and adults alike, we all want to make sense of this. It hurts all of us when we see these things,” said Chase. 

She recommends staff to continue healthy habits such as taking a break from the media. 

“The Internet is great. It allows us to get a lot of information out really quickly to a lot of people,” said Chase. 

“But it also the Internet doesn’t stop. It doesn’t take a break…Otherwise, we just kind of get caught in a cycle where we may continuously process or relive it. And that makes it difficult to remind ourselves that we are safe.”

Lastly, she tells students and staff to not be afraid to talk about their feelings and recognize their emotions.

Chase said “acknowledge that it made me feel scared, that it made me feel angry… That’s really important.”