Confronting Death in the School Family Online Course
Instructor: Dave Opalewski, LMSW
The death of a student or staff member can devastate a school and its surrounding community. Often these tragedies occur with little or no warning, which means school administration are left with little or no time to come to terms with the tragedy before they are forced to make decisions that affect the entire community. If you have ever experienced such a crisis, then you know just how painful and difficult this can be.
This course is based on the belief that the people best equipped to deal with a tragedy in the school are the school’s very own teachers, counselors, administrators and staff. When tragedy strikes a school family, many school administrators look upon the incident as a “guidance department issue.” I strongly disagree. I see this and hope you will also see this “as a school family issue.” In excess of 80% of thousands of students I have spoke with in over 30 states report the person they most wish to speak to at school following a tragedy is their classroom teacher. They also state that their greatest need immediately following a tragedy is for comfort instead of counseling. The counselors do have a very important function (which will be explored in this course) and that function is to counsel after the comfort and diffusing activities have taken place in the classroom. This protocol is in line with recent brain research stating that a quality sensory connection (comfort) must be in place before a quality cognitive connection (counseling) can occur.
Learner will be able to:
- Help your school develop a tragedy component to your crisis team that is prepared to handle death and other crises with honesty and compassion
- Help your school will be able to be a physically and emotionally safe environment.
- Have the knowledge and plans needed to help your students, staff and community to not just survive, but to learn and grow stronger from the experience.
Required text: “Confronting Death in the School Family,” David Opalewski and Joel Robertson, The National Center for Youth Issues, Chattanooga, TN 2007
Cost of taking this course online is $100. Upon successful completion of assignments tests and evaluation, a certificate of completion can be downloaded. CEs are not included in the price of this course but can be purchased in the TLC Online Bookstore. If you have questions about CEUs email [email protected].
Click here to register for the Confronting Death in the School Family online course.
Comments from Students
The only challenge that I ran into was with respect to the Assignment #6 (technology issue). Thankfully, the professor is very understanding and helpful which help me to address the issue that I was having. Additionally, I was very impressed that my assignments were graded in a timely fashion. The course is well organized and was broken down in easy and manageable steps. Thank you Mr. Opalewski!