Father commited suicide

[AG]

Hello everyone,

I am a new teacher. The father of my fourth grade student committed suicide last night. I don't know if she saw him or not. I am really sad. I am going to talk to the psych. tomorrow and to the vp. Do you have any suggestions or advice? Any will be very helpful.

Thank you

 

[javamomma]

no advice

But wanted to let you know that I am thinking of you and your class.

 

[Donna65]

Comfort Zone Camp

When the time is right please inform the family about Comfort Zone Camp in Richmond, Virginia. Comfort Zone Camp is a grief camp for children. Children from all over the United Stated attend Comfort Zone. The camp will pay for the airline tickets to/from camp and their is no charge for the camp itself. The volunteers who work at the camp have all experienced loss and are very familiar with the grief process. It is a wonderful camp and I would encourage any family who has a grieving child to send their child to this camp. The website is www.ComfortZoneCamp.org.

 

[NCJen]

So sorry

Hi,

I am so sorry to hear of your situation. I sort of understand, because earlier this year, one of my 4th graders lost his father in a freak accident. Because it's a small town, all of my other students knew about the accident. So, before he came back, I had a heart-to-heart talk with the rest of the class about appropriate comments to make and answered their questions as best as I could. When my student returned to school, I also referred him to the school counselor. He has not wanted to talk about the situation at all, and so, I have made a real effort to treat him as normally as possible. (Although, I have "loved" on him a little bit extra). I think that getting back into a routine is good for kids after a loss.
Also, I don't know if you'll agree with me on this or not, but I did not require that he make up all the work that he missed while he was out. I picked out the most important assignments and made sure those were made up, but some things, I just excused.
I hope that this helps you and again, I am so sorry.