By:Paul J. Condra
By the middle of last week's horrible Tuesday, Malverne schools had been locked down. After an emergency meeting, administrators decided to shut down Internet access, cancel bus service and keep the schools open until every child under 18 was picked up from school.
It was a drastic day that called for drastic measures, and the schools' administration, as well as the parent-teacher association, swung into action. PTA members were given lists of all the1,800 students in the school district, and spent the day contacting parents. By 5:30, every student had been picked up from school.
According to Malverne's superintendent, Allen Manella, there was never any doubt about the decision to keep the kids in school.
We felt this was probably the safest place to be,he said.
He said bus service was cancelled not because he was worried about safety, but because the administration decided that no child should go home to an empty house that day.
Elizabeth Zimmerman, mother and PTA co-president, said the response by the administration was effective and well-planned. She said it went incredibly smoothly, and couldn't have asked for anything more.
While getting the kids home safely was priority No. 1, administrators also wanted to ensure students would be able to vent their emotions over the next few days and weeks to come.
Within days, the district's crisis-intervention team sent parents a list of coping guidelines. The list describes some of the common reactions children have to tragedies, such as nightmares, and outlines possible methods of dealing with the event, such as continuing routines that provide stability, and avoiding constant TV news coverage.
Matt Rosen, a social worker at Lynbrook High School who helped author the fliers, said the guidelines are meant to help parents bring up the topic and identify problems, but stressed that responses to these events vary.
We've got to respect the differences in how people react,he said.
Still, administrators said students did not seem too shaken by the disaster, and point to few incidents occurring in classrooms or reported by guidance counselors. They said they didn't know what to expect from students as this tragedy doesn't compare to anything the schools, or the country, have seen in the past.
Teachers are discussing the tragedy in classrooms, but generally following students' lead. The consensus is that if students want to bring it up, teachers should be prepared to discuss it with them.
It they're old enough to ask the question, then they're old enough to hear the answer,Zimmerman said, adding that teachers are as unsure as anybody about what is happening .
Pat Martinez, president of the PTA, agrees, and said the idea of pretending everything is back to normal can only go so far.
It's going to be a long time before things are normal,she said. It's good to say business as usual,' but it's not business as usual.
Martinez said she hoped this terrible legacy left to the nation's children gets the proper discussion it deserves, especially when it comes to how people deal with it emotionally.
Of course, deep emotional discussions are sometimes easier said than done, especially among teenagers.
Yet Judy Klein, a teacher of forensics at Lynbrook High School, is having no problems getting her class to discuss the attack.
Apart from one instance where a student left the room in tears, and the class decided to end the discussion, Klein uses the subject of her class as the basis for the debate.
She said she first asks the students if they want to talk about Sept. 11. If so, she introduces the concept of a crime and an investigation. She said it allows the kids to discuss the event while maintaining a specific structure.
All the kids are interested, and they all want to know the truth,she said.
For Klein, revolving the discussion around forensics means she can stress how important evidence is when trying to come to a conclusion.
(My students) wanted answers, she said. And unfortunately, they wanted (the government) to do something.
