Officials aren't releasing how a 10-year-old boy died Sunday afternoon. The boy was a fifth-grade student at Saddle Ridge Elementary school
Counselors are available at the school to talk to students about the loss of their classmate. Letters were also sent home to notify parents of students who attend the school.
It's especially difficult for children to deal with and understand traumatic situations, like a death of a classmate. For elementary school age students, they generalize fears that can overwhelm their ability to cope in everyday life. Here are some symptoms to look out for:
- Sleep disturbances, including nightmares, night terrors
- Dullness
- Resistance to attending school
- Decreased intellectual functioning
- Decline in school performance and poor coping skills in the classroom
- Decreased ability to concentrate and stay focused
- Decreased spontaneous thought
- Focus on imagined actions they wish they had taken
- Play-acting the hero role
- Fantasizing revenge and/or engaging in traumatic play
- Persistent focus on the details of the trauma
- Imagined scenarios or specific ways in which violence can recur, especially when reminded by pictures or images of people, places or particular things
- Troubled peer relationships
- Changes in personality, including irritability and disobedience
- Decreased trust in adults who are charged with their protection
- Psychosomatic complaints
- Panic attacks or fears of being overwhelmed by worry and anxiety
- Engaging in hostile, aggressive or bullying behavior
- Sadness over loss of possessions
- Concern for own safety, that of siblings, and other victims and their families
Laramie County School District 1 sent CBS NewsChannel 5 these tips on helping children grieve and cope:
- First, start the healing process by helping children to feel relieved and soothed. Help them by modeling calm and control in your own life and give them a positive "I'm not helpless" attitude.
- Tell children honest, direct and factual information in order to help them understand death/loss—use the word "dead"; explain the physical reality of death—children are smart and will be more worried if they think you are too afraid to tell them the truth about what is happening/has happened—stick to the facts
- Keep your explanations developmentally appropriate and be honest with them about your own feelings about the experience or loss
- Encourage them to talk about their thoughts and feelings about the disaster or loss and let them feel pain, don't try to minimize the loss
- Learn to recognize the signs and symptoms of distress and post traumatic stress reactions
- Observe children's emotional state—depending on their age, children may not express their concerns verbally
- Remove traumatic reminders of the trauma, such as pictures on toys or graphic photos in magazines or newspapers
- Help children identify their feelings as normal emotions which are shared by many adults and other children after acts of violence (especially as they relate to fear, anger, sadness)
- Assure children they are safe—give concrete examples of any safety measures already in place and any steps adults are taking to protect children and/or give verbal assurance that adults in authority are actively working to "right wrongs" and establish order and physical safety
- Discourage negative coping through the use of drugs or alcohol. Instead reinforce positive health habits, including getting adequate rest/sleep and regular exercise
- Encourage children to talk to parents, teachers, and other significant adults at any and all times when they are feeling fearful
- Listen when children describe/share bad dreams
- Set and reinforce clear behavioral limits and expectations in the classroom and on playgrounds/school campuses
- Give children opportunities to experience quiet rest, nourishing comfort food, and the company of good friends
- Provide a calm routine at home and at school with support and supervision from caring and concerned adults
- Temporarily lessen requirements for optimum performance at school and at home and spend additional time to assist with homework, projects, chores, and other meaningful activities
- Ask for children's/student's opinions and ideas on how things can be improved at school, at home, and within the community and praise them for their constructive thoughts, feelings, and actions
- And perhaps most important, reassure children/students how much you care for and about them
- Identify children who may need intervention—refer them to the appropriate mental health care professionals
