ABSTRACT
The following is a personal account of a school psychologist who was on campus when a student died by suicide, lighting himself on fire. Hundreds of the students, parents, and staff witnessed the events and the district responded to the crisis by utilizing the PREPaRE crisis intervention model (Brock et al., 2009). A description of how PREPaRE was used to address this crisis is illustrated in the article “Utilizing the PREPaRE Model When Multiple Classrooms Witness a Traumatic Event” by Lisa J. Bernard, Carrie Ritttle, and Kathy Roberts (now Bobby) in the NASP Communique October 2011. This personal account—a follow up to the original article, describes the event, the school psychologist’s memories, crisis reactions, reflections and lessons learned, and highlights issues related to the support of crisis responders.
