HUNTINGTON — Children are resilient, but the effect of a tragic experience can be more long lasting if it isn’t addressed immediately.
Dr. Gary Patton, the special assistant to the vice president of mission integration at St. Mary's Medical Center, said helping children cope after a traumatic experience is often a responsibility of first responders.
Patton’s presentation was one of a half dozen on the second day of an Federal Bureau of Investigation-sponsored conference on handling school violence and disasters. He said helping children process the event is a critical first step in their emotional recovery.
“If we can’t intervene in some way, it can have lasting effects,” Patton said.
Factors that erode their resiliency are based on their proximity to a violent event, whether they heard or saw it, or if they only heard about it. Patton said children can bounce back, but it takes three forms of restoration that comes from first responders at the scene, parents and school officials.
“They need a sense of safety,” Patton said. “They need you to remove them from danger or remove the danger.”
Patton said the constant reassurance of protection is critical, but he cautioned not to make promises that it won’t happen again.
The second thing children need is stability, he said. A calm environment, adequate play time and contact with peers are crucial for children to cope with trauma.
The final form of restoration is structure. Patton said that often means getting back to the everyday routines of class and homework.
“The one thing that brings us all together is we defend those who are defenseless in our society,” Patton said of school students.
Harrison County Schools also presented their emergency operations plan, which includes regular drills, drug dog searches and planning for pandemics.
“The response is only as good as the people are prepared,” said Marcel Malfregeot, Harrison County Schools administrative assistant to the superintendent.
Tactical training also played a part in the conference, as many law enforcement official participated in a school shoot scenario Thursday morning at the Tri-State Fire Academy.
Major trauma such as a school shooting or hostage situation hasn’t taken place in Cabell County schools, but the county’s EMS has dealt with serious tragedy. Cabell County EMS Assistant Director Steve Murray said the Emmons fire in January 2007 was their first real test in not only taking care of the people directly affected by the deadly fire, but it also proved that the county’s emergency response plan worked. Nine people died in that fire.
Murray said agencies from seven counties in West Virginia, Ohio and Kentucky responded to the fire, but the chain of command and the communication lines never broke down.
“Incidents have a chance to overwhelm response teams,” Murray said, stressing the continued coordination between agencies throughout Cabell County and across the Ohio River.
He also pointed out that after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks in New York City, all of the county’s first responders got together for lunch and discussed the area’s vulnerabilities. Since then, the Homeland Security meetings have become a monthly luncheon that draws about 200 officials. Murray said the meetings are important because he now knows the people in the neighboring agencies.
That turned out to be crucial during the Emmons fire, he said.
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