Temecula, Murrieta crisis counselors busy at local schools after recent events

Budget cuts and a string of untimely incidents at local schools have kept crisis counselors especially busy in recent months.

Fifth-grade teacher Pam Skumawitz, 61, from Helen Hunt Jackson Elementary School in Temecula lost her battle with brain cancer on Oct. 25. She had taught in the district for 21 years.

Murrieta Valley High School lost its band director Rick Lorenzen, 52, on campus the same day to a suspected heart attack. There was also the death of a former Paloma Valley High School softball player who died in North Dakota along with two of her college teammates.

More recently, Lake Elsinore Unified School District is dealing with the repercussions of a man thought to be responsible for exposing himself to students at a Wildomar bus stop and attempting to lure students into his vehicle on separate occasions. The suspect is still at large.

When such events occur, students are encouraged to turn to crisis counselors for support.

Who are these counselors and how do they approach students in crisis?

“The counseling is highly individualized based on the crises, based on age, and the needs of the school site,” said Christine Fonseca, a district psychologist for Temecula Valley Unified School District .

Fonseca is one of 17 district psychologists and is part of the eight-member District Crisis Intervention Team. In addition, each school site in the district has appointed a four-member crisis team made up of counselors, psychologists and administration.

Murrieta Unified School District facilitates all counseling through two $1.1 million grant-funded programs called Breakthrough and RAIN. Both grants were written by Coordinator of Student Support Dean Lesicko and launched in 2008.

Breakthrough was initially a response to binge drinking and Rain as an effort to reduce bullying in elementary schools. Both programs incorporate dual site and district-level crisis teams.

These programs are especially beneficial amid increased workloads and decreased general funds.

According to the California Department of Education Website, the approved state budget package for the current school year provides “$50.7 billion for K-12 and community colleges (K-14) programs, a reduction of $7.4 billion below the 2008-09 enacted spending level.”

“Psychologists are busy. We are doing more with less,” said Fonseca. “I’ve felt the strain more over the last two years than anything else.”

Two psychologists were laid off from the Temecula district during the 2007-08 school year. The average school psychologist to student ratio in California is 1-to-1,892 according to 2004 data from the National Association of School Psychologists. No psychologists have been laid off this school year.

“In a crisis situation, it’s our job to triage; to screen which students are struggling. We do 20 to 30 minutes of initial grief work and then most students can go about their usual business,” Lesicko said.

The Monday following the passing of Lorenzen at Murrieta Valley High School, band students were met by the principal as well as site and district counselors during their scheduled class time.

Sophomore Dominic Delzompo, Nick Hilton and junior Kaylee Smith, among others, received a text the night Lorenzen passed away.

When asked if they had attended the crisis counseling offered, Delzompo said, “(Lorenzen) had a big influence on all of us, but since we are a family here, we were able to rely on each other.”

Senior Toree Sanchez of Murrieta Valley High School attended crisis counseling last fall when she lost a friend from a neighboring school district.

The school found out about her loss and made the counseling sessions available to her during her first class. Sanchez attended the nine-person group counseling the entire fall semester where she learned about the stages of grieving.

“I’ve been to the crisis counselors,” Sanchez said. “We talked about everything that happens. They teach certain ways to cope. They have us express ourselves and hear others in the group.”

Senior Devanae Elizondo from Great Oak High School has never experienced a major loss.

“If I lost a friend, I’d have to go to a crisis counselor,” Elizondo said. “I haven’t experienced any deaths in my life.”

Fellow senior and friend Jessica Blinkinsop is on the other end of the spectrum.

“I’m the opposite. I’ve had 10 major deaths in my family,” Blinkinsop said.

After a teacher recommended her for counseling however, she decided to pass.

“I don’t think they’d really understand my story as well as someone who experienced it with me,” she said.

An “R.I.P. Mr. Lorenzen” group created on Facebook currently has more than one thousand members.

Fonseca and Lesicko agree that group counseling can often be a good option for those reluctant to share one-on-one.

A time when group counseling proved especially beneficial was last October when Shea Iose, a junior varsity football player from Vista Murrieta High School, passed away in the school parking lot.

“The whole junior varsity team was broken down into smaller groups by position by the coach. They met for an hour and a half to share their thoughts and feelings,” Lesicko said. “In a group kids feel like they’re not alone.”

The emphasis of the counseling message could vary depending on age group too.

“An elementary kid needs to hear everything is ok. What a high schooler doesn’t want to hear is ‘Everything is ok,” said Fonseca.

“I’m busier than I’ve ever been and the need is greater,” said Fonseca. “That being said, given the fiscal situation here and in Sacramento, which is not good, we are doing the best we can.”

Tags: California Department of Education, Christine Fonseca, Helen Hunt Jackson Elementary School, Lake Elsinore School District, murrieta unified school district, murrieta valley high school, pam skumawitz, SWRNN, Temecula, temecula valley unified school district

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 11th, 2009 at 11:46 am and is filed under Education, Health, Lifestyle, Local News, News . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.