Grief In School Communities

An essential guide for all members of a school community and other professionals who need to know how to be supportive in times of crisis - including social workers, psychologists and bereavement specialists. The book is firmly based on theory, research and practice.

“Failing schools. Underprivileged schools. Just plain bad schools.” That’s how Eve L. Ewing opens Ghosts in the Schoolyard: describing Chicago Public Schools from the outside. The way politicians and pundits and parents of kids who attend other schools talk about them, with a mix of pity and contempt. But Ewing knows Chicago Public Schools from the inside: as a student, then a teacher, and now a scholar who studies them. And that perspective has shown her that public schools are not buildings full of failures—they’re an integral part of their neighborhoods, at the heart of their communities, storehouses of history and memory that bring people together. Never was that role more apparent than in 2013 when Mayor Rahm Emanuel announced an unprecedented wave of school closings. Pitched simultaneously as a solution to a budget problem, a response to declining enrollments, and a chance to purge bad schools that were dragging down the whole system, the plan was met with a roar of protest from parents, students, and teachers. But if these schools were so bad, why did people care so much about keeping them open, to the point that some would even go on a hunger strike? Ewing’s answer begins with a story of systemic racism, inequality, bad faith, and distrust that stretches deep into Chicago history. Rooting her exploration in the historic African American neighborhood of Bronzeville, Ewing reveals that this issue is about much more than just schools. Black communities see the closing of their schools—schools that are certainly less than perfect but that are theirs—as one more in a long line of racist policies. The fight to keep them open is yet another front in the ongoing struggle of black people in America to build successful lives and achieve true self-determination.

An essential guide for all members of a school community and other professionals who need to know how to be supportive in times of crisis - including social workers, psychologists and bereavement specialists. The book is firmly based on theory, research and practice.

"Written by the national go-to expert on childhood bereavement and school crisis, this new edition text from author David Schonfeld and co-author family therapist Marcia Quackenbush guides teachers through a child's experience of grief and loss. Using empirical research and their extensive experience supporting students, the authors illuminate classroom issues that grief may trigger, and empowers teachers to undertake the job of reaching and helping their students. Full of tips, strategies, vignettes, examples, and insights, Supporting the Grieving Student: A Guide for Schools also includes information on numerous topics relevant to child bereavement in school settings, including: major concepts of death that are crucial to children's understanding of the topic; responding to children's feelings and behaviors; how to effectively communicate with students and their families; commemorative activities; self-care; and providing support when a death affects a whole school community. New to this edition are an expanded online study guide, reflection prompts throughout the book, and new information including: Applications for an expanded audience of school administrators, counselors, social workers, psychologists, support staff, etc., New chapters on suicide loss and providing support in settings outside of K-12 schools, Revised chapters that include new information on social media, ambiguous losses, school crisis and trauma, supporting children with disabilities, and more school policies, line of duty deaths, commemorative activities, A new foreword written by a school administrator from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School As a practical guidebook, Supporting the Grieving Student: A Guide for Schools is essential reading in helpings teachers provide critical, sensitive support to students of all ages"--

Among the abundance of material available about death and dying, there is a very limited amount that deals directly with the needs of a school community when one of its members dies. In addition, a great need exists for schools to develop an organized plan for responding to the death of a student or staff member. A Student Dies, A School Mourns aims to fill this gap. The book not only examines and explains the grief reactions of students and school staff members and the factors that affect these reactions, it also provides a systematic guide for developing a death-related crisis response plan. This timely book is designed to be a systematic guide that incorporates a thorough analysis of grief in school, including normal and abnormal grief reactions, factors affecting these grief responses, and the differences in death beliefs and responses of students at different ages and developmental stages. It also acts as a map or step-by-step guide for establishing a death-related response plan. The liberal use of flow charts, time tables, and action plans, turns the often daunting task of creating a response plan into a relatively painless activity, stating what must be done, who should do it, and when. Extensive coverage is given to two issues in particular: youth suicide and violence/murder in the school. A Student Dies, A School Mourns will be a vital resource for school counselors, social workers, rehab psychologists, school administrators, teachers, clergy and anyone with an interest in death as it pertains to the school community. It will also be of use as a textbook for courses in death and dying, educational psychology, education, and educational administration.