Psychologists from Hillsborough, Pasco and other counties go to battered areas to counsel students still trying to cope with what happened.
By DONG-PHUONG NGUYEN
Published August 31, 2004
They drew pictures of shattered homes and dark storm clouds.
They talked about nightmares and struggling to fall to sleep.
They shared tales of collapsing roofs and disintegrating floors.
These were among the stories a team of Hillsborough County school psychologists heard Monday as they mingled with Arcadia elementary schoolchildren on their first day of classes since Hurricane Charley roared through.
The five school psychologists, armed with boxes of crayons and reams of paper, were in DeSoto County to help the students work through their emotions and cope with all the destruction.
"They drew a lot of clouds," said Ken Richter, who was among the psychologists assigned to Memorial Elementary in Arcadia. "A few were fierce storms."
Several students talked of recurring nightmares because Charley ripped the roof off the shelter they were in.
A little girl told of the floor of her family's mobile home opening up beneath her feet. Another little girl said she had watched as houses all around her were destroyed.
"In those situations, people react differently," Richter said. "We tell them that their feelings are natural, that everyone would be frightened."
Richter said he was impressed with the teachers who kept spirits high, despite the fact that some of them lost their homes as well.
"The teachers were very positive," he said. "They really were professional in the sense that they put their own personal tragedies behind them and focused on the kids."
After school let out Monday, Richter and his colleagues drove to the site of the Turner Center, the hurricane shelter that blew apart with people inside. A number of Memorial Elementary students had fled there with their families.
"We had been listening to their terrors," said Jeanne Raschke, another psychologist. "We saw the aftermath of what they were trying to tell us."
The Hillsborough psychologists, along with colleagues from Pasco, Collier and St. Lucie counties, were dispatched to 12 schools in DeSoto and Hardee counties to cushion the emotional fallout from the hurricane. Lizette Alexander, supervisor of psychology intervention and behavioral services for Hillsborough County Schools, coordinated the crisis teams.
Counselors will return today to continue their work.
