4/22/03 -- Many schoolchildren with parents deployed to Iraq are struggling with anxiety, fear, confusion, and feelings of abandonment.
School districts that serve large proportions of military children are stepping in with expanded counseling and other activities to help children adjust.
Teachers at the Ft. Stewart, Ga., school system, which is run by the Defense Department, receive special training on how to answer students' questions about the war and its aftermath. The district also holds weekly stress reduction and parenting workshops. Some 16,500 soldiers from Ft. Stewart have been deployed.
About 58 percent of 31,600 students in the Killeen (Texas) Independent School District have one or both parents involved in the military, says district spokesperson Bob Massey. Nearly 100 percent of the students at the district's six elementary schools and one middle school on base at Ft. Hood have military parents.
Counselors at individual schools have taken the lead in dealing with issues concerning deployment, Massey says.
They've done everything from making banners and posters, holding schoolwide assemblies, conducting weekly counseling sessions, and putting together care packages for the troops, he says. "And their doors are always open if children need to talk."
"Many of our counselors were here during Desert Storm so they know what signs to look for, what to say to children, and the kinds of things to do that would help them cope with the situation," Massey says.
At Killeen's Nolan Richardson Middle School, for example, a school counselor created a "worry wall," to allow students to write about their feelings about the war in Iraq.
Students at Sugar Loaf Elementary School put up an "oasis tree," displaying the names of all the parents who have been deployed. Under the tree, they placed items the troops might need in Iraq.
Students at Reeces Creek Elementary School heard that soldiers needed lip balm, Massey notes, so the school ordered packages of chapstick to send to Iraq, and the children put labels on them saying where they were from.
"Virtually every one of the 167 schools in our district has had an active family member," says Mark Hart, spokesperson for the Hillsborough County, Fla., school district. About 3,000 of the district's 175,000 students have a parent in the military, primarily assigned to MacDill Air Force Base, and many have been sent to Qatar.
"Well before the start of the war, we developed materials that would help students and staff cope with war-related issues," Hart says.
"We have tried to guide schools to limit exposure to television coverage of the war, particularly where younger children are concerned," he says. When TV footage is shown in class, there is "a discussion afterward so students can talk about not only what they have seen but what they feel."
The Bay City, Mich., school district is trying to be a "district of awareness," says spokesperson Rene Holcomb. In addition to parents, one of the district's teachers has been deployed in Iraq, as is the son of an assistant principal who graduated from a district school in 2001.
Arliene Stremming, the guidance counselor at MacGregor Elementary School, formed a support group for children of deployed parents.
The American Heroes Group "gives children an outlet for their emotions and basically allows them to support one another," says Stremming. It meets once a week and will continue as long as the children need it. The group keeps a private journal where students can write and draw pictures about their feelings.
One-third of the 17,000 students in the Lawton, Okla., school district have a parent based at Ft. Sill, many of whom have been deployed.
About 300 of the 501 students at Sheridan Road Elementary School, one of the district's two elementary schools inside the post, has a deployed parent, says Penny Jackson, executive director of curriculum and instruction.
This year, the district has added extra personalized training for counselors to deal with issues regarding the war.
"These children are very, very proud of their parents," Jackson says. "In a way, these children are also serving the country by supporting their parents."
The U.S. Education Department published a handbook, Educators' Guide to the Military Child During Deployment, to help school leaders build coping skills in students with parents in the war, smooth the adjustment process for them, and maintain an optimal learning environment.
Among the suggestions in the handbook: Provide structure; maintain objectivity; reinforce safety and security; reduce the workload as needed; and acknowledge and validate feelings.
The Military Child Education Coalition (MCEC) has prepared a booklet titled How to Prepare Our Children and Stay Involved in their Education During Deployment, with suggestions for parents and educators on predeployment, deployment, and reunion -- the phase which can actually be the most difficult for children.