G’town counselors help process grief overload

Eleven grief counselors worked their second day at Germantown High on Monday, helping a student body bigger than some small towns begin processing the sadness of losing two classmates in one week. A third, Blake Freeman, died of an illness in September.

“For a lot of the children, this is the first time they have lost a friend, a peer,” said Nancy Kelley, supervisor of counseling services at Shelby County Schools. Besides the shock of sudden loss, “it puts them in the position to realize ‘this is someone my age; this could happen to me.’”

By the close of school Monday, Kelley’s team had seen close to several hundred students grieving the loss of Christian Hess, 16, killed in a car accident Wednesday afternoon at South Germantown Road and Crestridge, and Him-yar Hassan, 16, killed Thursday in what investigators suspect was an accidental shooting at a home in the 8000 block of Tulip Rose.

Both boys were juniors. The school has 2,050 students.

GHS principal Ted Hor- rell announced the counseling in English and Arabic over the loudspeaker Monday morning and then read a sampling of the dozens of tweets that poured in over the weekend from alumni, parents and the public.

“I tried to express to the students the amount of support, love and prayers they are getting from the community,” Horrell said. “The grief is definitely manifesting itself in lots of different ways. This group of students has a remarkable ability and inclination to take care of each other. They have definitely wrapped their arms around each other and tried to get each other through this, just like we all are.”

School officials set up a temporary counseling center in the school library where counselors could talk to students in small groups with their friends. Across the table were sheets of construction paper and markers so students could make cards for the bereaved families.

Counselors, including a school psychologist, were called from across the suburban school district to handle the load, including making a database of students who will need follow-up care this week and in the weeks to come.