Deaths Prompt Overhaul of School Counseling Program

Belleville News-Democrat (Belleville, IL): School District 189 Superintendent Theresa Saunders, concerned about the deaths of three boys in less than two weeks, announced Wednesday the district is revamping its counseling program. While believing the deaths are "a very tragic blip" and not a trend, Saunders said the district will press ahead this month with previously planned staff training on counseling students about how to handle bullies and "making the right decisions." Two of the boys died by hanging and one was shot to death. In the latest case, Jeffrey Chairs, 14, was identified as the victim found hanging from a bunk bed Tuesday night. St. Clair County Coroner called Jeffrey's death an apparent suicide. "If a child is depressed, we have to know how to work with that child to help them understand what to do," Saunders said. "If they don't have the money or the toy that another child has, we have to teach them that it's OK. We have counselors, social workers and psychologists on staff to work with students, but, we have not had a very coordinated effort," she said. "We didn't have any real structure so everybody would know what they need to do, where to do it and how to do it with everybody knowing what the result would be."
[Personal commentary: How can you NOT have a system in place where everybody knows what's going on, what their role is, what to do, etc? It sounds like chaos to me. It sounds like an overhaul of the system IS in order.