JANUARY 27, 2017, KEIZERTIMES, PAGE A7
CRISIS,
continued from Page A1
Jones said their job is to
“stabilize” and “triage” the
building by providing support
to staff and students.
The bulk of what the crisis
team does happens before
school starts when a group
of counselors, usually 3-5,
depending on the anticipated
impact of the tragedy meet
with administration to discuss
how to present the tragedy to
the teachers and student body.
So everyone is on the same
page, an email is then sent
with a script to tell teachers
exactly what to say to students.
Often a member of the
crisis team will go into the
deceased student's classroom,
read the script if the teacher
is unable to and then answer
questions.
“We do a good and
deliberate job of just giving
the facts because it's not
uncommon for kids to say,
'I heard' or 'I saw',” said
Gail Winden, a transition
counselor with the school
district.
“Everything
is
scripted. We work real hard to
meet them (students) where
they're at and allow them to
begin to process.”
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THINGS A GRIEVING
CHILD NEEDS
g. Opportunity to
express their feelings
in several ways
a. Someone to listen
to them
b. Empathy
c. To know they are safe
d. Have their questions
answered over and
over again
e. To know it's not
their fault
h. Have feelings
validated
i. Structure and routine
j. Permission to be
quiet
k. Permission to be
a child
f. Permission to feel
The crisis team will also
follow the student's schedule.
“We'll have a physical
presence in the classroom of
the student because those tend
to be the toughest classrooms
to get back on track because
there's an empty desk there,”
Jones said.
While the school day
proceeds as usual, students
are also encouraged to go to
a safe place somewhere in the
building, like the McNary
library, where they can talk
with a counselor one-on-one.
“It's allowing the school
to go along with their
routine because routine is
really important,” Curran
said. “It's keeping the school
functioning at a normal level
for those students are aren't
as impacted and the students
that are impacted have a safe
place to go.”
In the safe place, kids are
encouraged to do something
to help the grieving family,
like make a card. Those
students are documented so
the full-time counselors in the
building can follow through.
The crisis team hears a lot
of the same questions from
students and staff: “Why?” or
TRETT,
continued from Page A1
Eventually, when help
arrived in the form of a grant,
Trett ended up running the
program for a couple of years.
Trett had started as a
volunteer in the fi re service
in 1974 and eventually
applied for a paid role as the
Keizer Fire District's public
education offi cer in 1995.
Then-Chief Greg Frank had
encouraged him to apply.
“It didn't take much. I like
the a-ha moments you see in
people's eyes,” Trett said.
The role took him into
classrooms throughout the
city continuing to work with
youth, but a one-day safety
course at Whiteaker Middle
School
hasn't
stopped
blossoming.
“Apparently, the kids really
enjoyed our time together
and the teachers asked if
there was something else I
could teach. That's when we
started the CPR and fi rst aid
certifi cations,” Trett said.
In
1996,
then-choir
director Barb Fontana asked
Trett if he would accompany
the choir on a trip to Reno
as a chaperone and fi rst
watching The Mickey Mouse
Club and a segment on kids
in California collecting
bottles to raise money for
polio research stuck with
him. He spent the next two
years collecting bottles with a
group of friends and sending
the money he recouped
to the muscular dystrophy
association.
He also set a goal of
becoming a camp counselor
at the Salem YMCA where
he met the man he calls his
mentor, Carl Greider. Greider
not only welcomed him
into the fold, but he tapped
Trett as an organizer of a Big
Brother-like program the
YMCA was launching when
Trett returned from living in
California.
“I'd gotten involved with
Big Brothers down there
and Carl jumped up when
he heard and told me I had
to on the task force he was
setting up,” Trett said.
after a suicide, “I should have
known.”
“Every person who knew
a person says, 'Man, what did
I miss?' Every teacher who
had a kid, 'What'd I miss?'
That part is universal,” Jones
said. “Lowering that level of
responsibility is a lot of the
work.”
But the crisis team is
mainly at the school to listen.
They are not grief counselors.
“Any loss involves a fairly
lengthy process to heal
from,” Jones said. “We can't
fast forward that process
for any building for any
reason. Sometimes there's a
misunderstanding that we're
supposed to fi x it, which is
human nature and I get why,
but really our job is to come in
a stabilize. Every building that
we've gone to any response
to this year is still healing
from that but that's not our
role. Our role is to go in so
that they can even just have
a normal school day and do
school again. Those counselors
in the building are still going
to be seeing kids who are
continuing to be impacted.
We're kind of like the EMTs.
We're not the doctors.”
Social media has had a
huge impact on the crisis
team. While the counselors
“That brings
such a
sense of
pride in your
community.”
— Jim Trett
Keizer First Citizen
responder if the need should
arise.
That led to him becoming
a “choir groupie.”
“To go to a competition
and watch the adjudicators
no longer break the news of
a tragedy to students, they also
have to quash rumors.
Jones said the best thing
parents can do during a
tragedy is be available and be
a good listener.
“People in general are very
uncomfortable talking about
death and especially talking
about that with their kids,” she
said. “If there's one message I
could say to parents, there's no
magic to it.”
While Jones likes to
alternate members of the
crisis team and not call the
same people every time, being
a counselor takes its toll on
those who respond.
Curran makes a point to
give his wife and kids a hug
when he gets home.
“One of the things that
every counseling program
is going to talk about is self
care,” Curran said. “The
difference between day in
and day out and going to a
response is you're defi nitely
with a magnitude of grief and
loss like it's on steroids. You're
like an vacuum sucking up
everyone's emotions and at
the end of the day you just
need to let it out. It's just
human nature. You're trying to
take care of other people but
it's important to take care of
yourself. That's why we have
each other and we debrief.”
Jones enjoys a good cry.
Earlier this school year, she
was on her way to a movie
theater when she got a call
from law enforcement about
a tragedy.
“I walked in and the lights
went down and I just started
crying,” she said. “I just
indulged myself. I was sitting
in a dark theater and I thought
'I'm just going for it right
now.' No one knew but it was
one way I could take care of
myself.”
But Jones has also seen the
good that can come out of
tragedies.
“For every big black cloud
that happens, there are always
incredible silver linings,”
she said. “Sometimes it's a
heightened awareness around
the needs of our community,
an increase in empathy, an
encouragement to everyone
around that people matter.
And I guess that's one of the
biggest surprises to me in
every one of the responses that
we ever go on. I always come
out of them on the other end
with a renewed sense of the
goodness of people, kids, staff,
parents, community. There's
always a silver lining.”
praise our students, that's
something. We were in New
York one time and one of
the adjudicators stared at
the kids for a while after
they fi nished and said only,
'Middle school?' That brings
such a sense of pride in your
community and just being
part of that is thrilling to me,”
Trett said.
Trett retired from KFD
in 2009, but his role at
Whiteaker and now other
schools only seems to expand.
Last year alone, Trett helped
certify more than 1,000
local students at Whiteaker,
Stevens, Walker and Parrish
middle schools in fi rst aid,
CPR or both.
He still gets stories from
former students who put
their knowledge to the test
in the heat of a moment.
Others will pull their
certifi cation cards, received
years prior, from their wallets
while standing next to him
in line at the grocery store. A
display of the moment when
he empowered them to act in
a crisis.
These days, it's fairly
diffi cult to do anything
around Whiteaker without
running into Trett. He's
handed out schedules, helped
students collect food for
their annual Stuff the Bus
campaign and chaperoned
dances. All of that is in
addition to his role as a city
councilor and mayor in his
new hometown of Detroit.
Even though the students
whose lives he touches get
younger and younger each
year, Trett said the secret
to connecting with young
people over the years hasn't
changed.
“My big thing is that if
you treat kids with respect,
they will reciprocate,” Trett
said. “I feel like I've had some
success in helping a few of
them turn around.”
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WorshipDirectory
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Call to list your church
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503.304.4000 • www.peopleschurch.com
Celebration
Services
Saturday Evening
6:00 pm
Children’s Programs, Student and Adult Ministries
1755 Lockhaven Dr. NE Keizer
503-390-3900
www.dayspringfellowship.com
Sunday Morning
9:00 am
and
10:45 am
Father Gary L. Zerr, Pastor
Saturday Vigil Liturgy: 5:30 p.m.
Sundays: 8:15 a.m. & 10:30 a.m.
La Misa en Español: 12:30 p.m.
Rev. Dr. John Neal, Pastor
Worship - 10:30 a.m.
Education Hour - 9:15 a.m.
Nursery Care Available
www.keizerjkpres.org