Talking with Students About Racism and Protests
We hear you.We acknowledge you.We stand with you. For the past two weeks, we at CMI have been working through the anger, horror and sadness brought across this country by George Floyd’s death. We have come face to face with our own privilege and have struggled...
COVID-19 and The Journey Ahead
It is going to be a long slog for all of us; young and old, families and classrooms, groups of all sorts and each of us individually. Anxiety often causes us to draw in, and with the contagion factors of the pandemic, to self-isolate. But there is a...
Community Responses in the Wake of Catastrophic Events
The Second Wave of Trauma: The Need for Broader Community Understanding and Action It is with indescribable sadness that we have learned of the suicides of two Marjory Stoneman Douglas survivors and the father of one of the children killed at Sandy Hook Elementary....
The Media and School Shootings
And so another heart-breaking tragedy with the start of the school year. Umpqua Community College has a mass-casualty shooting. As bleak as it always is, there is a significant ray of hope. The sheriff of Douglas County refused to speak the name of the shooter,...
Compliance of Students Taking the Pledge of Allegiance
Many social networking sites for counselors and teachers have posts about how to deal with students who refuse to take the Pledge of Allegiance. I stand respectfully when the national anthem is sung, but every cell in my body cringes at our focus on war, power, and...
Losing Robin Williams
As noted in our newsletter, this was written when it happened, but I didn't blog it at that time. Now, though, the commentary on FaceBook continues and is turning dark. We decided maybe it was still timely to offer something that could perhaps move us back...
Reflections on September 11th
As we approach 9/11, I find myself a little listless and somewhat lonely. Until the towers fell, I experienced 9/11 just the way most people on the West Coast did - seeing the coverage, horrified to think of the trauma, stretching to wrap my mind around it - but all...
Addressing the Swine Flu Threat
As we continue to deal with the unfolding of the swine flu threat, we need to keep in mind that the health departments in your area will have the information you need on dealing with the health matters, school closures, etc. For the first discussion guideline CMI...
Reflections on the 07-08 School Year
The ASCA conference is nearly upon us, which means we've wrapped up another school year. I wanted to take a moment to reflect on the year. This is a time when I can sit back to consider new trends and unusual phenomenon in the greater arena of school crisis. One way I...
Care for the Caregiver
Many of you ask how I stay so very optimistic in the face of the kinds of circumstances that fill my work. And those of you who attended my keynote at the Pennsylvania School Counselors Association Conference or the conference for counselors in North Dakota all know -...