Parents drop off their children at a Christian school entrusting those most precious to them to the guidance, care, and supervision of others. Besides academic achievement, they anticipate an experience characterized by safety, faith-driven relational practices, and missional growth opportunities.

When tragedy strikes that Christian school—an accident, violence, suicide, or natural disaster—the simple fact that children are affected multiplies sadness, horror, and rage. Even if no negligence was present, it feels like a promise was broken.

Crises are high-impact and high-visibility events. All staff, parents, and students immediately look to the school’s leadership for direction. The community scrutinizes carefully to see if faith in God truly makes a difference in these “real-life” situations. How leaders respond when every eye is upon them offers both tremendous opportunity and serious risk for the subsequent outcomes. Reactions to the leadership will echo throughout the school and community as others take their cue from the charted direction. All stakeholders will go through the crisis with or without leadership; this is the moment to draw on everything you can in order to lead well.

Whereas Christian educators possess many skills, they may not have crisis leadership training, experience, or expertise that includes the “human element.” Yes, other continuity issues such as technology, infrastructure, programming schedules, and cost containment must be addressed, but ultimately the most important asset at stake is people. All crises are human crises. Christian schools minister to valuable children of God. Those within the circle of impact who were not physically harmed may be grateful for their own safety, but the spiritual and psychological outcomes of such events can be extremely difficult for everyone.

School cultures are uniquely characterized by people wearing multiple “hats.” The death of a student affects the same teacher in a variety of ways—“friend of my daughter,” “my friend’s child,” “my shortstop,” and “someone I just disciplined last week”—can all be simultaneous dynamics. The gap between one’s personal and professional roles is painfully breached. Because those who are charged with caring for the students are also within the circle of impact, they are often paralyzed by their own response. A predictable set of acute traumatic stress reactions (physical, emotional, cognitive, and behavioral) that often result can be highly distressing and inhibit the individuals and the school as a whole from returning to prior levels of function. Questions of faith and worldview emerge in positive and negative ways. Subsequent anxiety about those reactions can further paralyze return-to-life and return-to-school efforts.

Also at risk are trust of leadership and a desirable “school identity.” A dynamic common to groups following a traumatic incident is increased us/them thinking, accompanied by projective blaming of the leaders for problems related and unrelated to the incident. People affected by trauma predictably tend to:

1. Regress to more basic, primitive impulses and defenses
   • The brain is circuited toward use of functions focused on creating an immediate sense of safety. These thought patterns are not necessarily logical, as portions of the brain dealing with advanced abstract thought are “put on hold.”
   • Decisions tend to be impulsive, extreme, and based more on emotion than logic.
   • Emotional responses are magnified and self-protective.
2. Immediately attempt to make sense of the incident in effort to gain a feeling of control over it
   • The belief is that if one can understand the incident, s/he can be safer in preventing it next time.
   • When the answer to “why” is not available, people create one in a way that is reactive and lacking objectivity.
3. Isolate from others
   • The lack of control experienced in the tragedy leads people to pull away from others in distrust. This may take the form of reduced school attendance/participation or guarded engagement.

Under stress, we regress. The accumulation of these factors produces conditions ripe for hostility and blame, with the school’s leadership positioned as the most convenient target. Following tragedy, the allegations of blame need not be accurate to be destructive in powerful ways. Educational leaders may genuinely care about their staff, students, and supporting families, but must find ways to express it effectively.

Behavioral health professionals that are specially trained as crisis response consultants understand the human impact of traumatic events, and are uniquely qualified to support both individual and organizational resiliency following tragedies. Due to their clinical training, they understand human behavior and the effects of potentially traumatic events, they communicate empathetically, and they can usually maintain poise under very stressful conditions. They have also been trained to structure effective responses to a variety of crises and to assess and triage situations in which access to additional services are required—especially when there is imminent danger of harm to self or others. Many are specifically trained in crisis response involving children. Research-informed best practices exist for the delivery of crisis response services; the combination of clinical excellence, along with shared Christian beliefs and sensitivity to unique faith-based cultures, can make a very positive difference in terms of recovery outcomes. They also come from an objective perspective outside the circle of impact. Selecting from a continuum of structured group and individual interventions, the crisis response consultant provides a safe, directed environment to:

• Consult with leadership to shape the response effectively
• Position leadership favorably through shared messaging—internal, external, and to the media
• Allow people to talk if they wish to do so
• Identify and normalize acute traumatic stress reactions so that those affected by them do not panic about them
• Build group support within student groups, work teams, and the constituency
• Outline self-help recovery strategies
• Brainstorm solutions to overcome immediate return-to-work and return-to-life obstacles
• Triage movement toward either immediate business-as-usual functioning or additional care

When schools already have a trained crisis response team, these external experts can be helpful as logistical consultants and to “care for those who cared for others” following the response.

Crisis Care Network, the largest provider of crisis response services to the workplace, has developed a crisis communication process that has been helpful for both consultants and organizational leaders. The acronym ACT describes a means of Acknowledging, Communicating, and Transitioning in the midst of a crisis.

Acknowledge and Name the Incident

• Have an accurate understanding of the facts and avoid conjecture
• Demonstrate the courage to use real language that specifically names what occurred
• Recognize that the incident affects everyone and that it is ok that individuals will experience this differently
• Acknowledge briefly that the incident has an effect on you personally; doing so compassionately gives others permission to feel, and diminishes the likelihood that you will be the target of blame

Communicate Pertinent Information with Compassion and Competence

• Nature hates a vacuum. In the absence of information, people create it. Providing information reduces the likelihood of rumors, builds trust, and provides a sense of order that supports moving forward.
• Although very difficult to do when impacted by traumatic stress, communicating with both competence and compassion demonstrates leadership effectiveness in a caring way. Crisis response consultants often help school leaders by scripting and coaching their messaging.

Transition Toward a Future Focus

• Communicate an expectation of recovery. Use plural pronouns and future-tense verbs. Those impacted must gain a vision of “survivor” rather than “victim.” Research indicates that humans are an amazingly resilient species as we bounce back from adversity. We are fearfully and wonderfully made!
• Communicate flexible and reasonable accommodations as people progress to a “new normal.” Staff members and students should not all be expected to function immediately at full productivity (although some will), but will recover quicker if assigned to simple, concrete tasks. A sense of efficacy empowers people and groups, whereas feeling helpless is terrifying. Structure and focus are helpful, and extended time away from previous roles often inhibits recovery. “If you fall off a horse . . . get back on a pony.”

Whereas I hope this is the most interesting article you never need, effective leadership during crises represents a meaningful ministry platform to truly make a difference in the lives of others. Crises are pivot points; they do not leave you the same. These events are life-shaping and will never be forgotten. I believe that there is no greater honor and no greater responsibility than to be there for people on the worst day of their lives. Please do it well.