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The Spokesman-Review Newspaper
Spokane, Washington  Est. May 19, 1883

Schools To Prepare For Sudden Tragedies Team Training, Formal Procedure Manual On Agenda In Pullman

Eric Sorensen Staff writer

As violence strikes schools more regularly, counselors and administrators in Washington and North Idaho are bracing themselves for sudden tragedies with the help of crisis-management teams.

The groups of trained staffers mobilize quickly to help schools and communities deal with violence and disasters.

Next week, the Pullman School District board of directors will discuss a policy that would mandate a formal crisis procedure manual at each school that lays out chains of command and checklists for crises ranging from hazardous material spills to armed intruders.

The high school will also host three days of crisis team training for school officials and community members from Washington’s Asotin, Garfield and Whitman counties, and the Idaho cities of Moscow, Potlatch, Lewiston and Clarkston.

Leading the training will be John Dudley, director of counseling services for the Lincoln, Neb., School District and author of “When Grief Visits School.”

Dudley has helped schools deal with more than 650 student and staff deaths and worked with more than 1,500 school districts across the country.

Parents will also be able to take advantage of Dudley’s expertise in a presentation and discussion to be held at 7:30 p.m. Thursday, Feb. 15, in the Pullman High theater.

The sessions have been planned for two months, but Friday’s shooting in Moses Lake added a level of urgency to the proceedings, Pullman High counselor Kellie Glaze said.

“As I came to school, teachers were saying, ‘Kellie, the crisis management session can’t happen soon enough,”’ she said.

While the Moses Lake shooting is of a magnitude few schools will ever deal with, Glaze and other school officials were preparing for their own tragedy a week earlier when junior Andy Zeller disappeared for two days while skiing at Silver Mountain. He wound up being rescued.

The details and impact vary from crisis to crisis, but Glaze said she can imagine the gamut of wrenched emotions following the Moses Lake bloodshed.

“It’s going to be the panic, terror and trauma - all that goes along with being traumatized - hopelessness, lack of direction, lack of focus, wanting to quit,” she said. “Some of the kids here, Andy’s friends, would not have finished school this year if Andy hadn’t made it.”

, DataTimes