Responding to Students after the Homicide of a Classmate

Abstract

This article analyzes how schools in the U.S respond to trauma in children and teens after the homicide of a peer and provides suggestions for best practices. The focus is not on in-school mass shootings but on homicide of young people outside of schools, in neighborhoods, which is the leading cause of death for African Americans between ages 15 to 24 years old, the second leading cause of death for Hispanic youth, and the third leading cause of death among White Youth (Centers for Disease Control [CDC], 2020). Typically, these deaths are not a national focus and schools have little resources to guide them in how to respond in the aftermath. Utilizing theoretical background on disenfranchised grief and trauma based practice, current school based response, and examples from the author’s own experience in a large, urban school district in NJ, this article seeks to dissect this difficult topic.