Educators Reach out to Katrina Victims

The emotional trauma of recent events may never go away. A million people were uprooted by Hurricane Katrina, including an estimated 372,000 children of school age. Three weeks later, Hurricane Rita slammed into the Texas-Louisiana coastline, forcing thousands more to evacuate. Acute symptoms of trauma range from confusion, nightmares, and clinging behavior in young children to sleep disturbances, depression, and fighting in preadolescents and teens. Months or perhaps years later, some may also develop Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome, which typically occurs with crime victims and soldiers in combat and is characterized by disturbing flashbacks and panic attacks. Academic problems could be exacerbated by the high level of poverty among evacuees. The combined effect of poverty-related problems and trauma from the storms could be debilitating for some children, experts say. The good news is that children can be remarkably resilient, often more so than their parents, said Howard Adelman, co-director of the Center for Mental Health in Schools at UCLA. After the hurricanes, parents must deal with the added stressors of insurance, housing, and employment. Kids just need to look after themselves. Schools can help them build resiliency by linking them with adult mentors and student buddies, experts say. School boards can cut red tape that may prevent students from getting needed help, especially important for those who had academic or emotional problems before the storms. Teachers should be careful not to pour on needless academic work, yet at the same time not treat evacuees differently because of what they went through. Developing new routines, new challenges--in short, a new sense of normalcy--is key to helping these children recover.