My personal experiences with death as a young and impressionable person
When I was in the 5th grade I was outside on my elementary school campus with my gym class when I heard that President Kennedy had been shot. Shortly thereafter I came back into my classroom and observed my teacher, Mr. Jackson, looking very distraught. He was a popular teacher who moved to Illinois from Texas and had an LBJ type manner of speech. Within minutes of his turning on the classroom TV we all watched Walter Cronkite shockingly declare that the president had died. Mr. Jackson openly wept at that moment and this out-of-character behavior along with his thoughtful words to us once he regained his composure was profoundly impactful upon my immediate reaction to that momentous and tragic event. Two days later I, along with millions of other children, watched the equally shocking shooting of Lee Oswald live on TV. My reaction was mixed given what I had come to believe of that man within that very short and chaotic period of time. Nevertheless, the witnessing of this powerful image required thoughtful mental processing as well as I also attempted to integrate that event into my ten-year-old world view.
When I was in the 7th grade I heard an announcement over the intercom that our school principal, Joseph E. Beacon, had died. There was no discussion in my classroom nor any apparent opportunity to talk about this event with a caring adult. Because he was a man that I was personally acquainted with for 7 years (the principal of my elementary school and then my middle school) and a person I liked a great deal, his sudden death was one which I would have liked to have processed at school that day. So the passing of this significant person left me with an unassuaged memory of how poorly my school handled a death notification.
Unlike many children of those times, and many of today, I was spared the more awful experience of having to cope with more potent and more direct death events. However, as a school social worker concerned for the well-being of all students, my childhood memories of death influenced my interest in the ways school personnel can help make death events more palatable for students. I hope that the information I provide within this section of my website will be a useful guide to school social workers and other mental health professionals concerned with the well-being of students impacted by death.