Back in 2008, I blogged about the demise of the spooky old tree in Carleton’s Lower Arb. Last week, Robbie and I had breakfast with Northfield newcomers Rebecca Bliss and…
Category: <span>Colleges</span>
St. Olaf Professor Todd Nichol is another one of the early morning regulars at GBM. A couple weeks ago, he barged into my corner office to inform me about…
When I was up at St. Olaf’s Buntrock Commons earlier this week, I noticed a very cool display on the impact of student use of disposable coffee cups. The…
I came arrived too late for last night’s Condom Olympics in the Lion’s Pause at St. Olaf’s Buntrock Commons. I was hoping to get photos of the condom relay race…
I got this email yesterday from Geoff Swanson, Assistant Director at St. Olaf’s Office of Student Activities. He showed up for the photo this morning at my corner GBM office…
The title of Betsey Buckheit’s blog post last week, Social media are not new, immediately got my attention, as much for its grammar as its subject matter. I’ve always found…
This week’s shooting incident in Lake City makes me glad that the Northfield School District has an Emergency & Crisis Management Plan, revised in 2010.
However, there’s one big problem with it.
Section 2.29 of the District’s plan, Post-Crisis Intervention Procedures, advises that district leaders consider interventions known as Critical Incident Stress Debriefing (CISD) or Critical Incident Stress Management (CISM).
CISM is "designed to help people deal with their trauma one incident at a time, by allowing them to talk about the incident when it happens without judgment or criticism" (Wikipedia reference).
It turns out, "CISD doesn’t do what it is supposed to do and may even prolong people’s distress," according to a new book I’m reading, Redirect: The Surprising New Science of Psychological Change by Timothy D. Wilson, professor of psychology at the University of Virginia. (See Timothy Wilson’s blog, follow him on Twitter, and see the book’s Facebook page.)
Neither Carleton College nor St. Olaf College have CSID as part of their crisis management plans but it’s evidently not by design, according to those I contacted. I think it’s safe to assume that if there were a traumatic event of some kind at the colleges, post traumatic event counseling would be made available.
I’ll invite some Northfield area psychologists, therapists and counselors to chime in here with their comments and questions in hopes that we all can get smarter about this issue and be better prepared should something bad happen.
Here’s an extended excerpt from Wilson’s book about CISD:
I saw this ‘Ask an Atheist’ discussion panel poster while walking through St. Olaf’s Buntrock Commons a couple weeks ago, so I went. It was sponsored by a student…