Boulder Valley School District Trauma Team Are Superheroes Providing Ongoing Support For Those Affected By The Marshall Fire

Press release from the Boulder Valley School District:

January 30, 2022

Once again another tragedy has struck our community. The last two years have been nothing but challenging for all of us - especially emotionally. And unfortunately, the BVSD Trauma Support Team has been activated much too often lately.

The team consists of school counselors, social workers, psychologists, mental health advocates, attendance advocates, and engagement specialists. There are three teams per network and they work on a rotation basis. All members are required to take training specific to trauma response through PREPaRE, a curriculum from the National Association of School Psychologists that trains school-employed mental health professionals and other educators on school crisis response.

PREPaRE stands for:
Prevent and prepare for crises
Reaffirm physical health & welfare, and perceptions of safety & security
Evaluate psychological trauma risk
Provide interventions
and
Respond to mental health needs
Examine the effectiveness of crisis preparedness

When the Marshall Fire broke out on Dec. 30, the trauma team activated immediately to put a plan into motion for students and staff who would be returning to school the following week after winter break. Tammy Lawrence, Director of Student Support Services for the East Network, also reached out to her counterparts in neighboring school districts, Adams 12 and St. Vrain Valley school districts, for their assistance because she knew this tragic event was going to need all hands on deck.

“There’s a lot of superheroes in this,” said Lawrence, referring to first responders such as firefighters. “But mental health-wise, it’s really our trauma response experts that come in and wear those capes to help support our community. We’ll continue to lean on them because they do have the expertise and they have built relationships within the response. We couldn’t have done any of this work without everybody coming together and the outpouring of support has been tremendous. Other buildings that haven’t been impacted released their mental health folks to help us. Everybody knows it’s really a community effort and it takes a village to do it.”

Right away the team set up mental health support sessions, both in-person and virtually, to be held throughout the first two days when teachers came back from break, which were originally scheduled to be professional learning days. Affected staff were given the flexibility to take the time they needed before returning to work. Students who needed support before school opened were also able to get guidance during that time.

Next, the team focused on student support as they were scheduled to come back just a few days after the staff. Teams were assigned to support the most impacted schools - Coal Creek Elementary, Douglass Elementary, Eldorado PK-8, Fairview High School, Fireside Elementary, Louisville Elementary School, Louisville Middle School, Monarch PK-8, Monarch High School, Superior Elementary. On the first day back to school there were 45 BVSD trauma team members, 33 from the Adams 12 School District team and an additional 14 from SVVSD, all providing trauma support for students, parents and staff. In just the first week back to school, there were 10 trauma team leads and 129 mental health professionals from BVSD, Adams 12 and St. Vrain.

This collaborative trauma response team provided emotional support online and in-person at all of the affected schools and the Education Center. But they didn’t stop there. They created contact forms for students, staff and families to use to request support. They provided lists and resources on how to talk about the fire and the emotions and feelings around this tragic loss. They put together a document with resources such as food, clothing, housing, mental health, etc.

So far, over 557 referrals have been received and the team has had approximately 1,000 calls/conversations with those needing emotional support. Over 995 students have been seen at the schools by a trauma response team member, many with multiple visits.

Support and Resources:

You do not have to be directly impacted to take advantage of this support.

• BVSD social/emotional support request forms are available for students and staff, or contact your school counselor.
• BVSD Marshall Fire website
• Mental Health Partners is offering for all ages three free services for those that were impacted by the Marshall Fire. They are also offering two support groups. Visit the MHP website for details and links to a variety of resources.

“We really relied on everybody’s skill set and abilities to manage this,” added Lawrence. “It was truly remarkable to see people come together that have knowledge and expertise in the same area, but are from different districts, come together to work as though they had been working together for years. We really had a pretty amazing system going within just a couple of hours.”

Mental Health Partners (MPH) has helped consistently since the tragedy occurred with their in-school prevention interventionists and by providing aid in schools that need additional support. Additionally, the Colorado Department of Education and the CO Society of School Psychologist Crisis Response Team reached out to offer their support. Assistance from these and other outside sources will be staggered throughout the rest of the school year.

“We’re extremely thankful for MHP and our collaboration that we’ve had with them over the years,” said Lawrence. “We will continue to partner with them as being our main hub and will respond in collaboration to the needs of our students, parents, staff and school communities. They will lead community mental health efforts and get those resources for parents, and we will continue to provide the support that we have been providing through this response.”

The BVSD Trauma Support Team has been a tremendous asset to the district, especially over the past two years. They will continue to be superheroes through their daily work and throughout this tragedy.

“This [support] will be ongoing for the rest of the semester. We’ll be following our students and our families for the next couple of years. It’s going to be a long recovery,” added Lawrence.

This press release was produced by the Boulder Valley School District. The views expressed here are the author’s own.