Colleges Rally to
Help Students in Louisiana
Helping Hurricane’s Victims
(Students) Get Back To Normal
By Dr Catherine Cook-Cottone
While Louisiana and Mississippi residents struggle to evacuate,
to relocate and—above all else, to survive—many
of the youngest among them face years of recovery from a variety
of traumas Hurricane Katrina has dispersed upon them. A University
at Buffalo expert in recovering from the effects of stress
spoke about what the hurricane victims can expect to endure
in coming months. Catherine Cook-Cottone, assistant professor
and director of school psychology in the Graduate School of
Education, said the Katrina catastrophe will produce many forms
of suffering in all its victims, young and old.
“The traumas that these victims face—loss of family
members, friends and neighbors, destruction of homes, neighborhoods,
entire towns—guarantee that many of them will experience
post-traumatic stress disorder in one form or another,” said
Cook-Cottone, adding “Loss, displacement and changes
in routine, compounded with physiologicalstressors such as
dehydration, hunger or injury, increases the chances of psychological
symptoms.” While children, “in general are quite
resilient,” infants, toddlers and pre-teens are especially
at risk. ”The younger children are, the more their reaction
depends on the adjustment of their parents and those around
them,” she added.
“If the environment and adults around them
provide a safe, structured, and nurturing response to the disaster,
the children have a better chance of faring well.” In
general, the parents of these stricken children can help them
adjust immediately. “Children will be soothed by routine,
structure, and normality. Getting them back to routine is typically
considered good,” Cook-Cottone said.
But for 185,000 Louisiana school-age children, and another 160,000 students
from Mississippi, starting the school year at new, strange schools far away
from their hometowns will be anything but routine or normal. The teachers and
school counselors at these schools will face a tremendous responsibility as
key support figures for their new arrivals. “This situation is difficult
as many children will be attending alternative schools and schools at which
the student-teacher ratio limits may be lifted to allow for the influx of the
displaced students,” Cook-Cottone said. “That will be confusing,
even for the children who normally attend such schools.”
Parents and adult relatives have several other ways they can
work to allow for the children to make smoother transitions
to new schools. “The schools might want to consider allowing
parents to accompany children in the mornings, and to provide
a safe place for children to go during the day if they need
to take a break,” Cook-Cottone said.
For students “who are experiencing anxiety, but otherwise
can make it through the day,” the schools might provide
a phone for these children to contact parents or relatives
during school hours. Another helpful strategy would be to “develop
a buddy system, pairing new children with students who already
know the school and can mentor them,” Cook-Cottone said.
She added that schools might also integrate coping and processing
activities into their curriculums, such as was done follo wing
the September 11 terrorist attacks in the United States. Asking
students to draw pictures, write stories or poems, and compile
care packages to rescue workers can be very healing to the
children, as well as to teachers and staff members. Young students
aren’t the only ones to watch for signs of distress following
such catastrophes.
While “older children have developed their own psychological
coping strategies and are not as tightly linked to the responses
of parents and those adults around them,” they are not
necessarily immune to the effects of tragedy either, she said.
All school counselors and psychologists, therefore, can take
the following steps to help students upon their return to classes:
consult with teachers to support in-class processing of the
event and ongoing media coverage; provide ongoing screening
and referral services for students; provide on-site supportive
counseling for students and families within the school setting;
support back-to-school transitions individually and by coordinating
school efforts and strategies.
Parents, the most vital links to their children’s recoveries
from such devastation, can help them in many ways, including:
go by the child’s school and visit inside if possible
before the first day back to make it positive and a bit more
familiar; stay in the child’s classroom during the initial
drop-off transition and leave a phone number with the school
psychologist and/or school nurse if the child has shown signs
of anxiety or trauma symptoms; give the child a transitional
object, something small, to carry with them at school. It can
be the parent’s business card, a worry stone, an “I
love you” note, a card with the parent’s or relative’s
cell phone number on it. “The child can then easily access
the transitional object when feeling anxious or alone,” Cook-Cottone
said. Be waiting for the child at the end of the school day.#
Dr. Cook-Cottone is an assistant professor and director
of school psychology in the Graduate School of Education,
University of Buffalo.
