Trauma Response Strategies Formulated to Support Students and Staff

Trauma response strategies have been formulated by the Guidance and Counselling Unit, Ministry of Education and Youth, to provide support for students, faculty and staff who may have experienced emotional distress as a result of the reported bomb threats.

The intervention protocol, dubbed ‘Response to Trauma Events’, was done in partnership with the Ministry of Health and Wellness and other agencies.

Minister of Education and Youth, Hon. Fayval Williams, made the disclosure at today’s (November 15) post-Cabinet press briefing at Jamaica House in St. Andrew.

“For all our grades, we will have coping skills lessons that will be done by our health and family-life education teachers and guidance counsellors… . We will have coping skill lessons for our staff as well. We will have some bounce-back intervention, return to happiness, therapeutic component involved there,” she said.

The Minister informed that the intervention would continue until the end of December.

Mrs. Williams said, as well, that disaster drills would continue with the aid of the Jamaica Fire Brigade, the Jamaica Constabulary Force (JCF) and Office of Disaster Preparedness and Emergency Management (ODPEM).

“We know that the JCF and our emergency responders are still continuing the work to identify who or what is behind this,” she said.

Meanwhile, Minister Williams urged school administrators to continue to take the threats seriously every time.

“Never before have we experienced in our schools the mayhem, the dislocation and the disruption of the education system as we did for the past four days. The damage in psychological impact on the well-being of our children and on us as adults is, as of this moment, still indeterminable,” she said.

“We are happy that no life has been lost. Using all the emergency management protocols and procedures, our school administrators were able to respond in a most appropriate way that gave all of us confidence and trust,” she said.

Minister Williams commended the emergency responders, as well as Board chairmen, principals, teachers, administrators, and all members of the school community, for their swift action and commitment to the safety and security of the nation’s children.

She informed that the threats started on November 9, 2023 with an email advising school administrators of a bomb being planted on the school compound.

“Our end-of-day report on Thursday showed that 16 schools across six of the seven regions received the email. St. Catherine, which is region six, reported the highest number of schools [impacted]. On Friday, November 10, 2023, the bomb threats continued; our end-of-day report showed that 55 schools received the threat with region one, which is Kingston and St. Andrew, reporting the highest number of schools [affected] that day,” the Minister said.

“It must be noted that of this number, there are two schools that received the email with the bomb threat twice. On November 13, one school in region two, which is St. Thomas, reported it received a bomb threat, while on Tuesday, November 14, two schools reported to us that they received a bomb threat via email,” she informed.

She disclosed that all of the schools contacted the police upon receiving the email, adding that they implemented their school safety protocols and evacuated the students and staff to a safe place.