Message from the Superintendent

Dear KPS Family,

Our hearts are heavy with sorrow over the shooting tragedy that took place at Oxford High School last week. We cannot begin to understand the pain that community is feeling, but we know that the loss and fear will affect the students, the school and the community for years to come.

The loss of four young lives in another senseless act of gun violence is hard to fathom. We mourn the loss of the children in this attack and offer our support and encouragement to all who were injured as well as to the entire community, which is dealing with the emotional scars inflicted by this attack.

This senseless violence understandably affects not just Oxford but us as well. We know that Kalamazoo has been struggling with its own epidemic of gun violence in recent months. The City of Kalamazoo and Kalamazoo County have declared gun violence a public health crisis. This societal violence weighs on all of us — and perhaps on our children most of all. Undoubtedly, you will be having conversations with your children around this shooting.

We wanted to share some information that may be helpful.

Children should know that we take their safety seriously. We have a strong relationship with the Kalamazoo Department of Public Safety and the Kalamazoo Township Police Department. Our safety plan has been reviewed and approved with high marks by the county and state. We regularly review the plan and make improvements.

Across our state, schools participate in the OK2Say program, a student safety program that allows students to report tips on potential harm or criminal activity directed towards students. KPS also has its own anonymous tip line (269- 488-1019) that can be used to report suspicious or concerning behavior.

Our schools participate in numerous safety drills throughout the school year, including three lockdown drills as is required by state law. The district also has school resource officers from KTPD and KDPS at Kalamazoo Central and Loy Norrix high schools, and its own staff of 24 campus safety officers.

Additionally, there are mental health resources designed to support a variety of challenges experienced by people of all ages. The district has invested heavily in mental health supports. We have a crisis support team, social workers, mental health specialists, behavior specialists, climate and culture coaches, and a host of other resources and programs to support our mental health efforts. We encourage our students, families and community to use these resources when needed.

Our Social-Emotional Learning team had previously scheduled a workshop on “Coping with Grief During the Holiday Season, on Wednesday, Dec. 8, at our new SEL Center, 3410 Laird St. In-person attendance is limited to 30 people, and it will be livestreamed. Sign up to attend in person or to watch the livestream.

Conversations around the topic of violence may be difficult to have with your children. We want to share some resources that may help in those discussions. One resource that may be helpful is the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) website. For other general conversations about safety, especially for younger children, Johns Hopkins All Childrens’ Hospital has suggestions for talking to lower elementary school children on its website. For more information, please see the attached page for resources from the Great Lakes Mental Health Technology Transfer Center Network and the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration.

If you have concerns that your child needs additional support to help them process this event, please feel free to reach out to your school. There are support staff who can help children who are scared, confused or grieving because of this tragedy. The district has invested heavily in mental health supports in the past year. We value and prioritize the social and emotional well-being of our students and staff.

Please do not hesitate to ask for help — whether for yourself or someone else in need. If there is nothing that our community learns from these senseless situations, it is that we have an obligation to care for and support those around us. We will do our best to help you — or help find the resources you need.

If you have questions regarding our school safety measures, please do not hesitate to contact your school principal or our office anytime. Be assured we are working constantly to maintain safe environments where your children can learn and grow.

Sincerely,

Dr. Rita Raichoudhuri

Superintendent

SAMHSA Press Release: The Disaster Distress Helpline at 1-800-985-5990 can provide immediate counseling to anyone seeking help in coping with the mental or emotional effects of the shooting in Oxford, MI.

Beyond "Sorry for Your Loss": Supporting Students in Their Grief Recovery Part 1

This session is designed to provide a better understanding of grief and loss in students and to explore interventions that educators can use to support grief recovery.

Beyond "Sorry for Your Loss;" Supporting Students on Their Grief Journey Part 2

As an extension to Part 1, focuses on ways to communicate empathy and support students’ grief journey inaction. The session introduces therapeutic activities that support students in establishing a sense of safety, dealing with emotions, making sense of the loss, and living with the loss beyond the loss.

After A School Tragedy...Readiness, Response, Recovery, and Resources

This resource is designed to help schools support students and families in the aftermath of violence and trauma. It provides strategies to assist schools with readiness, response, and recovery to help a school community support resilience in the event of a tragedy.

NCSMH Supporting Students, Staff, Families, and Communities Impacted by Violence

The National Center for School Mental Health (NCSMH) at the University of Maryland School of Medicine compiled the following list of websites and free resources to help support youth, families, schools, and communities impacted by violence.

NCTSN Coping After Mass Violence

From the National Child Traumatic Stress Network this fact sheet provides common reactions children and families may be experiencing after a mass violence event, as well as what they can do to take care of themselves.

NCSCB Talking to Kids about Tragedies

From the National Center for School Crisis and Bereavement, this guide offers insight and suggestions for how to handle talking to children in relation to tragic events, such as shootings and terrorist attacks, that they are likely to hear about at school and/or on the news.

Quick Tips for Difficult Conversations

Younger Students

What to say

Reassure them that they're safe and that people are working on the problem. Even if you feel anxious, you want your kids to feel like you're in charge and that it will be resolved.

Ask open-ended questions. If your kids don't know what happened and don't bring it up, you don't necessarily need to. If they bring up an incident, you can ask, "What did you hear?" or "What do you think is going on?"

Use simple sentences. Feel free to oversimplify if you have to. You can say, "Someone hurt people." And if an idea is too complicated to explain — maybe you don't need to.

Emphasize that emergency drills help keep them safe. Encourage them to follow the procedures and stay calm. If they're mandated at your school, it's best to be supportive when kids are within earshot.

What to do

Try to keep the news away. You might be eager for information, but try to be discreet. If you can't turn off the news, try distracting your kid or changing their focus with a book or an activity.

Save strong emotions for your adult support community. You don't have to be a robot, but avoid displaying strong emotion. Kids often get scared when they don't know why parents are upset. Make sure to say, "I'm upset about what I heard on the news. It's not you."

Allow them to express themselves how they want. You may see a wide range of reactions when you discuss bad news.

Make it a normal day. Try to maintain a typical schedule so kids feel the safety of regularity. But feel free to indulge in extra comfort and togetherness.

Older Students

At this age, kids are developing their moral beliefs, which means they can delve deeper into a subject. More exposure to peers, social media, and news means they'll receive lots of information — some of which you may need to correct.

What to say

Find out what they know. It's likely that kids this age will have heard about a shooting before they get home from school. You can ask, "What did you hear today?"

State the facts. If they've heard about the incident, ask what they've learned. If they don't know, you can say, "I need to tell you there was a school shooting. I want it to come from me so we can talk about it."

Check in. Tweens and teens may be more open if they can set the pace. The conversation can happen when it feels right. You can say, "I want us to take a few minutes to discuss what happened. Let's talk either now or a little later."

Encourage them to express themselves. Teens are learning how to communicate their ideas, but they may need prompting. You can ask questions, share what you know, or get a conversation going in other ways.

Read their cues. Sometimes kids are just done and can't handle any more discussion. Be on the lookout for signs of information overload.

Share your feelings. Telling kids how you feel about what happened is a good thing even if they don't ask. Saying you're sad or mad will unburden you and model empathy and compassion.

Talk about emergency drills. Make sure they understand the importance of following procedures and staying calm.

Message from the Superintendent

Dec. 6, 2021

Kalamazoo Public Schools