Implementing a Crisis Management Plan
The purpose of this paper is to provide you an opportunity to demonstrate your understanding of how to respond to a crisis, communicate with stakeholders, and provide crisis intervention and trauma-informed care to students and faculty affected by the crisis.
Note that this assignment has two parts, as described below. This assignment meets CACREP 2016 Standards 2. F 3g, 2. F 5k, 2.F 5m, 2.F. 7c and CACREP School Counseling Standard SC. 2i, 2k.
Assignment Directions
Review Blooming Park: Tragedy at Sylvia Plath High School (linked in Resources) and complete the media activities. Then, using the information gathered in those activities, complete the following:
Assume the role of a new counselor at Sylvia Plath High School, where a popular teacher has just died in a car accident on his way to school.
For Part 1:
Explain the crisis event, the school response, and available resources to students in a letter to parents that demonstrates critical-thinking skills.
- Draft the letter requested by the principal explaining the situation to all the parents. In the letter, outline the school’s response and provide information regarding the resources available to students both internally, through the school counseling department, and externally, through community agencies.
For Part 2:
Examine evidence-based crisis intervention skills and strategies appropriate to the school counselor role that will support students in the recovery process.
- Discuss how to support specific students identified in the principal’s e-mail. Identify the presenting issues. What services should a school counselor provide?
- Discuss how you, as the school counselor, will identify other students who may need support. Present a specific model a school counselor can use to respond to this crisis in the immediate future and subsequent weeks.
- Discuss how you, as the school counselor, will connect the students to community-based resources and help them understand the benefits.
Examine how the effects of crisis, disasters, and trauma affect diverse people across the lifespan and outline ways to mitigate those effects.
- Using evidence from the literature, discuss three potential ways a diverse person could be impacted by crisis and trauma.
- Using evidence from the literature, discuss three specific strategies to mitigate the impact of crisis, disasters, or trauma.
Submission Requirements
- Written communication: Written communication is free of errors that detract from the overall message.
- APA: Resources and citations are formatted according to current APA guidelines.
- Format: All assignments must be submitted in one of the three acceptable formats: DOC, DOCX, or PDF.
- Resources: Use a minimum of 5 scholarly articles.
- Length: 4–6 double-spaced, typed pages.
- Font and font size: Times New Roman, 12 point.
- _________________________________________________________________________________________
view the email from the principal below and the student interviews:
Email from Heather Ramsey
From: Heather Ramsey, Principal
Subject: Ethical issue
I know you are new to Sylvia Plath High School, but nonetheless, I hope you share my grief and the grief of all of us in hearing the news of Andrew Smith’s passing. I know that the announcement I made this morning—per the request of the family— took everyone by surprise. I know this means that you, our new counselor, will be quite busy! Andrew Smith was one of the most popular teachers in this school. Kids and parents and other teachers loved him. He was always staying after school to help out kids who were struggling in his classes. I can’t even tell you what a loss this is for everyone.
Here’s what I need your help with first: I need help drafting a letter to the school community. This letter will need to provide information for parents about the school response, and also include school based and community resources.
Additionally, I am personally concerned about several students on your caseload, and I would like for you to reach out to them personally. They are:
- Tyler Smith. Tyler is Coach Smith’s stepson. He’s a junior, a straight-A student, and the captain of the soccer team.
- Amir Malik. Amir is Tyler’s best friend. He’s a sophomore. Amir has learning disabilities and has been in special education inclusion since middle school.
- Riley Hanson–Jones. Riley is also a good friend of Tyler’s. She’s a junior and also is an excellent student. Riley is very quiet, and I get the sense there are some issues in her home life.
- Daniel Kirschbaum. Daniel is a junior, and he’s also on the soccer team. Sadly, he also lost his father in a car accident recently. I should mention that Daniel’s father was a good friend of mine, and I’m very concerned with how this incident will affect Daniel.
Since you’re new, I think it would also be helpful to speak with two teachers who know these students well: Jane Vang, who teaches math, and Cody Glotzer, who teaches PE and is the assistant soccer coach.
Thank you so much for your help!
Warmly,
Heather
______
Interviews
Tyler Smith
Student, Junior
Look, I’m fine. My mom wanted me to come to school today to keep things normal—and that’s fine with me. I need to be strong for her so she doesn’t have one more thing to worry about. I can handle this better than she can. I know you might have heard that my stepdad and I had a fight and weren’t speaking to each other, and that’s true… but it’s not a big deal. We got along fine. I hear they’ve taken the driver of the car that killed my stepdad into custody. I want to go down to the police station after school and get a good look at him. They better not leave me in a room alone with that guy, if you know what I’m saying. Someone told me that he ran a stoplight, and if that’s true—well, he’s not going to get away with that. I’d like to take a pipe to that guy’s head a few hundred times, that’s what I’d like to do!
Amir Malik
Student, Sophomore
Tyler’s my best friend. I’m really worried about him. He’s acting like everything’s okay, but it’s not. I don’t know why he doesn’t just go home. I know I wish that I could go home. Coach Smith was the best teacher I ever had. He helped me out a lot this year in American history. I have reading disabilities and I almost failed social studies last year. But this year was a lot better because Coach Smith always went out of his way to help me. And not just because I’m on the team. He helped everybody. I don’t know who’s going to be teaching history now, but I hope I don’t fail. Man, it feels like the whole school is freaking out about this. Everywhere I go, there’s kids crying. It’s rough.
Riley Hanson–Jones
Student, Junior
I knew Coach Smith real well. I was the soccer team manager. Tyler was so lucky that he got Coach Smith as his stepfather. I have a stepfather too and he’s… well, he’s not that nice. He’s been married to my mom for about a year now. And he was kind of nice to me when they were dating. At least back then he didn’t… well, you know. He wasn’t on my case so much when I did something wrong. He’s real particular with how he wants things in the house, and I’m kind of a slob, I guess. So, he gets really, really mad at me when I leave stuff laying around the house. I mean, I know. I shouldn’t do that, so it’s my own fault. My mom keeps warning me that if I don’t put my stuff away my stepdad is going to… well, you know. I wish she would stand up for me, but I guess she really can’t. Before we started living with him, we didn’t have a lot of money and sometimes we didn’t have enough to eat, and once we were even living in her car for a while. But I’m super sad about Coach Smith because he was pretty much the only person I could talk to about stuff like my stepdad. I talked to him a few days ago, and he said he was going to make an appointment for my mom to come in and talk about the way he treats me. But now I guess I just have to deal with things on my own. I know this sounds really, really bad – but if someone’s stepfather had to die, I wish it were mine and not Tyler’s.
Daniel Kirschbaum
Student, Junior
Yeah, I guess Principal Ramsey wanted you to talk to me, right? Because my dad died in a car accident too? I guess I am kind of freaked out. Mr. Smith was my social studies teacher… I’ve had him for the past two years. And he was really nice to me. After my dad died, he told me I could come talk to him whenever I wanted about stuff. And I did a few times. Well, maybe more than a few times. I was talking to a therapist for a while. But my family doesn’t have a lot of money—especially after my dad died – so I couldn’t go anymore. And I was really depressed after my dad died. They were going to put me on some medicine to make me less depressed, but like I said, we couldn’t afford to go anymore, so that never happened. But I was starting to feel better. Not so depressed anyways. But now… I don’t know. I haven’t thought about the day I found out about my dad dying in a while. But today I can’t stop thinking about it again.
Jane Vang
Math Teacher
It’s always hard when something like this happens. But with Andrew Smith, it’s even worse. It’s hard to get anything done because nobody can concentrate. Kids are crying. Teachers are crying. Andrew was that kind of teacher – the one who went out of his way for everyone? He’s the guy who welcomed new faculty, and broke up fights in the cafeteria, and always noticed if a kid wasn’t doing so well. As the school counselor, you’re going to need to help these kids. I hope you’ve spoken to Tyler. I heard him saying that he wanted to kill the other driver. I don’t blame him for being angry, of course – but I’m very worried about him.
Cody Glotzer
PE Teacher
I’m definitely concerned about Tyler. I can’t begin to imagine what he’s going through right now – it’s just shocking. Tyler’s the kind of kid who’s calm under pressure and doesn’t let things get to him—or at least he acts like things don’t get to him. I think he should go home, at least for a few days. But his mom said she wanted him to stay in school to try to keep things as normal as possible. I don’t buy that he’s holding it together as well as he’s acting—I mean, how could he be? Also, I guess I should mention this: Tyler and Coach Smith haven’t been getting along so well since the coach married Tyler’s mother last semester. They had some kind of fight last week. I don’t know all the details. But it had to do with a scholarship offer for Tyler to go to England and play soccer, and I don’t think Coach Smith was on board with that. So my guess is that Tyler’s harboring a lot of guilt. I’m not sure if they were even on speaking terms when Coach Smith died, and that’s a heavy burden for a kid to bear. As for the other guys on the soccer team – well, you can imagine how they feel. Andrew was the kind of teacher that kids went to with their problems, and now that he’s not here anymore, they feel lost. Have you talked to Riley Hanson–Jones, by the way? She’s our team manager. I know that she was talking to Andrew about some issues at home, and… well, I’ve noticed a lot of black and blue marks on her. And I’ve noticed how withdrawn she’s gotten lately. You should follow up with her.
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Implement A Spelling Checker By Using A Hash Table You Will Create A Class Calle
/in Uncategorized /by developerImplement a spelling checker by using a hash table. You will create a class called SpellChecker in the file SpellChecker.java. The object will try to check for spelling errors in an input file by attempting to find each word in the file in a provided dictionary. The SpellChecker object will take one input to its constructor.
The constructor of the object is tasked with parsing through the dictionary file and storing each word from the file in a Hash Set instance. The SpellChecker object will use this dictionary file as a reference when checking for spelling errors in a specified input file. You will now implement two functions to complete the functionailty of your novel SpellChecker object.
When finding incorreclty spelt words, you may need to process the strings from the input file before comparing it to a word in the previously created HashSet instance. Your program should be case insensitive (so you must toLowerCase() everything). You must also strip only one leading and only one trailing punctuation. In order to ensure consistency between each student submission, the solution code and the automated grading script, we will define punctuation as anything that is not alphanumeric. Therefore, when you are stripping only one leading and one trailing punctuation, you will only check whether the first and last characters of the string are alphanumeric (number or alphabet).
In order to generate a suggestion for a given word, you will try all of the following techniques:
Your function should return all possible suggestions from each one of the techniques above. The order of the suggestions in the returned List object is not important.
You will also write a main method in the Problem1.java file to test the functionality of your SpellChecker object. Your main method should create a SpellChecker object with the words.txt dictionary file and should spell check any file of your choice. You can even create your own .txt file! Print out each incorrectly spelt word in the test file and also print out each word suggestion for every incorrectly spelt word.
We have provided you a sample test file to spell check. This file is called test.txt. The correct output of the SpellCheckerTester.java file for the given test.txt file has also been provided to you; the file is called output.txt. Ensuring that your output matches the one we provided does not guarantee full credit. However, it is a does indicate that your project meets at least some of the requirements.
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Implement A Wpf App To Load Stock Information From Stockdata
/in Uncategorized /by developerImplement a WPF app to load stock information from StockData.csv, allow user to Search specific company’s stock history information, and display the search result in a DataGrid, and the result should be sorted according to the date. Clean the data by removing those rows that the price contains negative value while the data is loading. Add Progress bar to the status bar to indicate the progress of file loading.
Your app should also include a synchronous method to calculate factorial number.
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Implement An Advanced Big Number Calculator By Using Javafx Gui
/in Uncategorized /by developerImplement an advanced “Big Number” calculator by using JavaFX GUI. Use TextFields to show the input and output result and Buttons to set the operator (add +, subtract -, multiply x, larger >, smaller <, equal ==). Note that a Big Number can be a floating-point number (0.1 or 1111111111111111111111.5)
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Implement An Electronic Stock Trading System Your System Will Accept Trading Ord
/in Uncategorized /by developerImplement an electronic stock trading system. Your system will accept trading orders and based on those orders, it will keep track of pending orders, and execute trades when possible.
1. Database design (20 points)
Use Microsoft Access to design a database for the stock trading system. You should determine the tables to be created, the attributes in each table, and the primary key in each table. DO NOT define foreign keys in this assignment even they do exist. It will be easier for you to debug your VB program when foreign keys are absent.
The system maintains common stocks records. Each stock is described by a ticker symbol (e.g., BAC), a company name, exchange venue (e.g., NYSE), listing date, sector, and industry.
The system also keeps track of stocks’ daily closing records. Each closing record consists of a ticker symbol, a date, opening price, highest price of the day, lowest price of the day, the closing price, trading volume on that day, and 1 day price change %.
Users can use the system to place market order requests for stock trading. A market order is a request to purchase or sell a stock at the current market price. Each order request should include a ticker symbol, date and time of the request, type of order (buy or sell), quantity of stock to be traded, and order status (pending, completed, or cancelled).
2. Database population (10 points)
Use Microsoft Access to populate at least 10 records into each of the database tables created above. You must pick at least 10 stocks from this web site: HYPERLINK “http://www.1stock1.com/1stock1_112.htm” http://www.1stock1.com/1stock1_112.htm , where you can find last year’s return rate % for each stock. For other stock information, please use the Yahoo! Finance ( HYPERLINK “http://finance.yahoo.com/stock-center/” http://finance.yahoo.com/stock-center/) and search by the stock ticker symbol. The sector and industry information can be found from the company profile page on Yahoo! Finance. Please make sure that you have at least 2 sectors and 2 industries per sector, and that each industry has at least 2 stocks.
After you populate the stocks table, you should populate daily records and trading requests based on either true market data or your imagination. Please make sure that you have a mixture of different order types and statuses for different stocks. A minimum of 10 records is required for each table.
3. SimpleBroker v1.0: A DataReader Application (70 points).
MB v1.0 is a DataReader application for placing stocking trading request. You must use a DataReader object to retrieve records from the database and a Command object to update the database. The following describes the components needed for the development.
User interface: You should design your user interface to support the following functions. Label objects should be used appropriately to make your interface user-friendly. (10 points)
Populate the stock ticker ComboBox control: The user should start with a ComboBox control (StocksComboBox) that displays the complete list of stock tickers retrieved from the database. (15 points)
Populate the stock closing price ListBox control: After the user selects a stock ticker from StocksComboBox, a ListBox control (ClosingPricesListBox) should display a list of past closing prices of the selected stock. Each past closing price should indicate both a date and a closing price (e.g., “03/20/2013-$90.23”). The list should be ordered by descending dates. (15 points)
Populate a ListBox control: After the user selects a stock ticker from StocksComboBox, another ListBox control (TradingRequestsListBox) will display a list of currently pending stock trading requests for the selected stock. Each request should indicate the order type and stock quantity (e.g., “BUY-2000”). The list is ordered by the order type first and then by quantity. (15 points)
Placing a new order request (15 points):
The user selects an order type (buy or sell) from another ComboxBox control (TradeTypeComboBox), and enters a stock quantity to be traded in a TextBox control (QuantityTextBox).
By clicking a Button control (SubmitButton), add a new stock request record to the database.
4. Bonus questions (20 points):
Sector selection: Another ComboBox control (SectorsComboBox) should be used to display all sectors in the database. The user starts with selecting a specific sector from SectorsComboBox. StocksComboBox will then only display those stock stickers in the selected sector. (10 points)
Error handling: Use data validation or exception handling to prevent the following runtime errors from interrupting the program execution:
Non-numeric values in QuantityTextBox (5 points)
OleDbException when populating the ListBox and ComboBox controls. You can get such an exception if your database table is open from Access in the Design View when you try to execute your VB program. (5 points)
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Implement In C A Unix Utility Program Gasp The Command Gasp Options String File
/in Uncategorized /by developerImplement in C a Unix utility program gasp. The commandgasp [options] STRING FILE…should read the listed files (FILE…) and copy each line from the input to stdout if it contains STRING. Each output line should be preceded by the name of the file that contains it. The argument STRING may be any sequence of characters (as expanded, of course, by the shell depending on how it is quoted). There are two available options, which may appear in any order if both are present:* -i Ignore case when searching for lines that contain STRING. If the -i option is used, the strings “this”, “This”, “THIS”, and “thiS” all match; if -i is not used, they are all considered different.* -n Number lines in output. Each line copied to stdout should include the line number in the file where it was found in addition to the file name. The lines in each file are numbered from 1.Your program does not need to be able to handle combinations of option letters written as a single multi-character option like -in or -ni. But it does need to be able to handle any combination of either or both (or neither) option when they appear separately on the command line.Besides the general specification given above, your program should meet the following requirements.1. Be able to handle input lines containing up to 500 characters (including the terminating ). This number should not be hard-wired everywhere in the code, but should be specified with an appropriate #define preprocessor command so it can be changed easily. Your program is allowed to produce incorrect results or fail if presented with input data containing lines longer than this limit.2. You may assume that the string pattern on the command line is no longer than 100 characters (including the terminating ). This length should also be specified by an appropriate #define.3. Use standard C library functions where possible; do not reimplement operations available in the basic libraries. For instance, strncpy in <string.h> can be used to copy -terminated strings; you should not be writing loops to copy such strings one character at a time.Exception: there is a getopt function in the Linux library that provides simplified handling of command line options. For this assignment, only, you may not use this function. You should implement the processing of command line options yourself, of course using the string library functions when these are helpful.4. You should use “safe” versions of file and string handling routines such as fgets and strncpy instead of routines like gets and strcpy. The safe functions allow specification of maximum buffer or array lengths and will not overrun adjacent memory if used properly.5. For the -i option, two characters are considered to be equal ignoring case if they are the same when translated by the tolower(c) function (or, alternatively, toupper(c)) in <ctype.h>.6. If an error occurs when opening or reading a file, the program should write an appropriate error message to stderr and continue processing any remaining files on the command line.
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Implement Measures To Reduce Combat Stress In A Squad Section Practical Exercise
/in Uncategorized /by developerYou are a squad leader with the “Sapper” platoon, Special Troop Battalion, 3d Brigade, 10th Mountain Division. Your unit is deploying to Iraq to conduct operations in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom. One of the critical tasks in preparation for your deployment includes training your squad in the identification and reporting of possible combat stress related behaviors to their leaders. This task is crucial to the conduct of combat operations as leaders will identify and implement appropriate actions that offset COSR risk factors and control combat stress.Case StudyDuring the Gulf War, the Special Troop Battalion (STB) of the U.S. Army armored brigade moved into Kuwait, not far behind the armored battalions. Battles and skirmishes with Iraqi armor and infantry were in progress. Several kilometers away, U.S. air power attacked Iraqi forces entrenched around a mosque. In the aftermath, Soldiers discovered that Kuwaiti civilians took refuge in that mosque. Sadly, some died or received wounds as a byproduct of “collateral damage.”Alpha Company of the STB, along with its Light Infantry support unit was forward as a casualty response team. Accompanying those elements were the brigade’s Army psychiatrist, the STB chaplain, and the chaplain’s assistant. The fighting grew more ferocious and friendly casualties were mounting as the troops got closer to the mosque and the built-up area. The psychiatrist and several Soldiers can vividly recall the image of the chaplain’s assistant coming out of the wreckage carrying two very young girls, one already dead and the other seriously injured. As they got closer to the objective, they became aware that they were in the middle of a “kill zone.” An Infantry Soldier who stumbled across a wounded insurgent decided to end the insurgent’s physical anguish. When asked why he did it, he called it a “mercy killing,” and he stated that he didn’t see anything wrong with it.Over the next several hours, the surviving casualties received transport to the servicing medical company, and all received the necessary emergency care. There was not adequate time to conduct an immediate debrief of the Soldiers. Some of the Soldiers were refusing to follow orders, some were shaking and trembling, some were even argumentative and acting recklessly. The chaplain’s assistant became silent and preoccupied, he withdrew from the group, barely able to communicate, and finally, he began to shake uncontrollably. The psychiatrist wanted to treat him on site, but he couldn’t. Armored battles continued to rage nearby and the possibility of another mass casualty or emergency move still loomed. He could neither devote full attention to this individual casualty nor trust that casualty to respond appropriately and safely in an emergency.The Soldiers and the chaplain’s assistant departed with the other casualties on a truck going back to the U.S. Army surgical support company and combat stress center in Saudi Arabia. A few days later, they found themselves back on duty in the special troop battalion. By this time, the ground campaign was over. Unfortunately however, the unit was still completing the dangerous and often gruesome process of securing the battlefield. The team went on to participate in the unit’s new missions.Critical Thinking Exercise1. What stress-related behaviors did you recognize within the scenario?2. Which COSR risk factors did you recognize?3. Based on the scenario, what leader actions would you implement? Why?4. Describe insight or value that you acquired from this practical exercise.
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Implement Server And Client Program In C There Are Two Clients X And Y Both Esse
/in Uncategorized /by developerImplement server and client program in C++. There are two clients, X and
Y (both essentially identical) that will communicate with a server. Clients X and Y will each
open a TCP socket to your server and send a message to your server. The message contains the
name of the client followed by your name (e.g., “Client X: Alice”, “Client Y: Bob”).
The server will accept connections from both clients and after it has received messages from
both X and Y will print their messages and then send an acknowledgment back to your clients.
The acknowledgment from the server should contain the sequence in which the client messages
were received (“X: Alice received before Y: Bob”, or “Y: Bob received before X: Alice”). After
the server sends out this message it should output a message saying – “Sent acknowledgment to
both X and Y”. Your server can then terminate. Once your clients receive the message from the
server, they should print the message that they sent to the server, followed by the reply received
from the server.
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Implement The Guessnumber Game In This Game The Computer Think Of A Random Numbe
/in Uncategorized /by developerImplement the GuessNumber game. In this game, the computer
• Think of a random number in the range 0-50. (Hint: use the random module.)
• Repeatedly prompt the user to guess the mystery number.
• If the guess is correct, congratulate the user for winning. If the guess is incorrect, let the user know if the guess is too high or too low.
• After 5 incorrect guesses, tell the user the right answer.
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Implementation Plan Part 2 Attached Last Weeks Assignment For Company Review And
/in Uncategorized /by developerImplementation Plan: Part 2
ATTACHED LAST WEEKS ASSIGNMENT FOR COMPANY REVIEW, AND WORKSHEET IS ATTACHED
In Unit IV, you started to create an implementation plan. You selected a company and analyzed their strategy and mission. In Unit VI, we will continue your work with this company and develop a SWOT analysis.
Remember that a SWOT analysis identifies strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of an organization. This is an important analysis for any organization as it can be used for strategic planning. Your SWOT analysis must be a minimum of two pages in length. Once you have completed your SWOT analysis, write a minimum of one page, explaining how this information could be used by the company.
Please use the template below to complete the SWOT analysis and explanation. Outside research is not a requirement.
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Implementing A Crisis Management Planthe Purpose Of This Paper Is To Provide You
/in Uncategorized /by developerImplementing a Crisis Management Plan
The purpose of this paper is to provide you an opportunity to demonstrate your understanding of how to respond to a crisis, communicate with stakeholders, and provide crisis intervention and trauma-informed care to students and faculty affected by the crisis.
Note that this assignment has two parts, as described below. This assignment meets CACREP 2016 Standards 2. F 3g, 2. F 5k, 2.F 5m, 2.F. 7c and CACREP School Counseling Standard SC. 2i, 2k.
Assignment Directions
Review Blooming Park: Tragedy at Sylvia Plath High School (linked in Resources) and complete the media activities. Then, using the information gathered in those activities, complete the following:
Assume the role of a new counselor at Sylvia Plath High School, where a popular teacher has just died in a car accident on his way to school.
For Part 1:
Explain the crisis event, the school response, and available resources to students in a letter to parents that demonstrates critical-thinking skills.
For Part 2:
Examine evidence-based crisis intervention skills and strategies appropriate to the school counselor role that will support students in the recovery process.
Examine how the effects of crisis, disasters, and trauma affect diverse people across the lifespan and outline ways to mitigate those effects.
Submission Requirements
view the email from the principal below and the student interviews:
Email from Heather Ramsey
From: Heather Ramsey, Principal
Subject: Ethical issue
I know you are new to Sylvia Plath High School, but nonetheless, I hope you share my grief and the grief of all of us in hearing the news of Andrew Smith’s passing. I know that the announcement I made this morning—per the request of the family— took everyone by surprise. I know this means that you, our new counselor, will be quite busy! Andrew Smith was one of the most popular teachers in this school. Kids and parents and other teachers loved him. He was always staying after school to help out kids who were struggling in his classes. I can’t even tell you what a loss this is for everyone.
Here’s what I need your help with first: I need help drafting a letter to the school community. This letter will need to provide information for parents about the school response, and also include school based and community resources.
Additionally, I am personally concerned about several students on your caseload, and I would like for you to reach out to them personally. They are:
Since you’re new, I think it would also be helpful to speak with two teachers who know these students well: Jane Vang, who teaches math, and Cody Glotzer, who teaches PE and is the assistant soccer coach.
Thank you so much for your help!
Warmly,
Heather
______
Interviews
Tyler Smith
Student, Junior
Look, I’m fine. My mom wanted me to come to school today to keep things normal—and that’s fine with me. I need to be strong for her so she doesn’t have one more thing to worry about. I can handle this better than she can. I know you might have heard that my stepdad and I had a fight and weren’t speaking to each other, and that’s true… but it’s not a big deal. We got along fine. I hear they’ve taken the driver of the car that killed my stepdad into custody. I want to go down to the police station after school and get a good look at him. They better not leave me in a room alone with that guy, if you know what I’m saying. Someone told me that he ran a stoplight, and if that’s true—well, he’s not going to get away with that. I’d like to take a pipe to that guy’s head a few hundred times, that’s what I’d like to do!
Amir Malik
Student, Sophomore
Tyler’s my best friend. I’m really worried about him. He’s acting like everything’s okay, but it’s not. I don’t know why he doesn’t just go home. I know I wish that I could go home. Coach Smith was the best teacher I ever had. He helped me out a lot this year in American history. I have reading disabilities and I almost failed social studies last year. But this year was a lot better because Coach Smith always went out of his way to help me. And not just because I’m on the team. He helped everybody. I don’t know who’s going to be teaching history now, but I hope I don’t fail. Man, it feels like the whole school is freaking out about this. Everywhere I go, there’s kids crying. It’s rough.
Riley Hanson–Jones
Student, Junior
I knew Coach Smith real well. I was the soccer team manager. Tyler was so lucky that he got Coach Smith as his stepfather. I have a stepfather too and he’s… well, he’s not that nice. He’s been married to my mom for about a year now. And he was kind of nice to me when they were dating. At least back then he didn’t… well, you know. He wasn’t on my case so much when I did something wrong. He’s real particular with how he wants things in the house, and I’m kind of a slob, I guess. So, he gets really, really mad at me when I leave stuff laying around the house. I mean, I know. I shouldn’t do that, so it’s my own fault. My mom keeps warning me that if I don’t put my stuff away my stepdad is going to… well, you know. I wish she would stand up for me, but I guess she really can’t. Before we started living with him, we didn’t have a lot of money and sometimes we didn’t have enough to eat, and once we were even living in her car for a while. But I’m super sad about Coach Smith because he was pretty much the only person I could talk to about stuff like my stepdad. I talked to him a few days ago, and he said he was going to make an appointment for my mom to come in and talk about the way he treats me. But now I guess I just have to deal with things on my own. I know this sounds really, really bad – but if someone’s stepfather had to die, I wish it were mine and not Tyler’s.
Daniel Kirschbaum
Student, Junior
Yeah, I guess Principal Ramsey wanted you to talk to me, right? Because my dad died in a car accident too? I guess I am kind of freaked out. Mr. Smith was my social studies teacher… I’ve had him for the past two years. And he was really nice to me. After my dad died, he told me I could come talk to him whenever I wanted about stuff. And I did a few times. Well, maybe more than a few times. I was talking to a therapist for a while. But my family doesn’t have a lot of money—especially after my dad died – so I couldn’t go anymore. And I was really depressed after my dad died. They were going to put me on some medicine to make me less depressed, but like I said, we couldn’t afford to go anymore, so that never happened. But I was starting to feel better. Not so depressed anyways. But now… I don’t know. I haven’t thought about the day I found out about my dad dying in a while. But today I can’t stop thinking about it again.
Jane Vang
Math Teacher
It’s always hard when something like this happens. But with Andrew Smith, it’s even worse. It’s hard to get anything done because nobody can concentrate. Kids are crying. Teachers are crying. Andrew was that kind of teacher – the one who went out of his way for everyone? He’s the guy who welcomed new faculty, and broke up fights in the cafeteria, and always noticed if a kid wasn’t doing so well. As the school counselor, you’re going to need to help these kids. I hope you’ve spoken to Tyler. I heard him saying that he wanted to kill the other driver. I don’t blame him for being angry, of course – but I’m very worried about him.
Cody Glotzer
PE Teacher
I’m definitely concerned about Tyler. I can’t begin to imagine what he’s going through right now – it’s just shocking. Tyler’s the kind of kid who’s calm under pressure and doesn’t let things get to him—or at least he acts like things don’t get to him. I think he should go home, at least for a few days. But his mom said she wanted him to stay in school to try to keep things as normal as possible. I don’t buy that he’s holding it together as well as he’s acting—I mean, how could he be? Also, I guess I should mention this: Tyler and Coach Smith haven’t been getting along so well since the coach married Tyler’s mother last semester. They had some kind of fight last week. I don’t know all the details. But it had to do with a scholarship offer for Tyler to go to England and play soccer, and I don’t think Coach Smith was on board with that. So my guess is that Tyler’s harboring a lot of guilt. I’m not sure if they were even on speaking terms when Coach Smith died, and that’s a heavy burden for a kid to bear. As for the other guys on the soccer team – well, you can imagine how they feel. Andrew was the kind of teacher that kids went to with their problems, and now that he’s not here anymore, they feel lost. Have you talked to Riley Hanson–Jones, by the way? She’s our team manager. I know that she was talking to Andrew about some issues at home, and… well, I’ve noticed a lot of black and blue marks on her. And I’ve noticed how withdrawn she’s gotten lately. You should follow up with her.
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