When the unthinkable strikes A tornado rips through a community, destroying one school and severely damaging another. Three students are killed in an automobile accident on the way home from prom. A gunman terrorizes a school, killing and wounding many students and staff. A teacher dies of an unexpected heart attack in front of her students. A student commits suicide in a high school parking lot. Long-term recovery from crisis is not a single event but rather a journey that requires intentionality and, in many cases, more time than we might think. The more people affected, the more complex the process. Although schools gen-How schools heal after a tragedy Every tragedy is different but preparation, strong school/community ties, and disciplined followup can help every situation.

This chapter focuses on strategies that can be implemented in the aftermath of a school or community crisis to help restore the exposed students’ basic problem-solving abilities and help them return to precrisis levels of functioning or, depending on the impact and severity of the incidents, to adjust to a new normal. The authors first focus on empirically supported elements of crisis intervention that can be implemented within a multitiered model of service delivery. These include promoting a sense of safety, calming and supporting fearful individuals, engendering a sense of self and collective efficacy, increasing feelings of connectedness with others, and instilling hope in victims. Practical intervention strategies are provided regarding responding to mass shooting incidents, deaths of students and faculty, student suicide, and natural disasters. The chapter includes an illustrative case study and concludes with lessons learned from the authors’ experiences as school- and university-based crisis responders.

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