Crisis counselor offers help to school officials

Terry Webster

Tuesday, Oct. 30, 2001 | 9:50 a.m.

Near ground zero in New York City, the silence is deafening.

Rows of rescue vehicles sit with lights flashing and sirens silent.

Pedestrians walk without speaking.

Acrid yellow smog hangs over the city and fires still burn in the ruins of the twin towers.

"The closer you get, the quieter it gets," said Cheri Lovre as she described the scene Monday to 300 Clark County School District principals and administrators. "It's just too late and it's too serious. Nobody says anything."

As director of Crisis Management Institute, Lovre brings that experience to schools around the country in her training programs. Her specialty is visiting places where school tragedies have occured.

"I have to bear witness to what they went through," the counselor said.

For her, that usually means responding to natural disasters or school shootings, such as the one at Columbine High School in Littleton, Colo.

Since Sept. 11 Lovre has added a topic to her program: terrorism.

For the past several weeks Lovre has spent time talking to students, parents and staff members of New York City schools that were near or directly affected by the terrorist attacks.

"It has been inspiring, heartbreaking and hopeful," she said.

Lovre said one of the key preparations for future crises is soul searching.

"What sustains you?" Lovre asked the crowd. "Everyone has something that sustains them. We need to get to know what that is now."

Lovre said she had to answer that question herself as she worked with schools closest to ground zero.

"What keeps me going is the thought that I can go in there as a beacon of hope," she said.

Schools closest to the tragedy are coping remarkably well, considering what happened, she said.

"There is a sense that everything is just not normal," Lovre said.

The terrorist attacks have left behind vacant classrooms, orphaned students and displaced staff members who can't return home.

"I call them, 'the schools that ran,' " Lovre said. "The teachers in those schools got all of those kids out safely before the towers fell. To me, that is just phenomenal."

Students who can't return to their home schools have crowded into others, creating classrooms with 50 to 60 students in some cases, Lovre said.

"They are sitting on the floors, but they are coming to school and they are learning," she said.

The schools appreciate letters and teddy bears they have received from other students across the nation, but what they really need now is school supplies, she said.

Supplies are scarce because schools that were evacuated had to leave behind textbooks and other basics. Desks and other supplies are not expected to be used again because of contamination.

More information on Lovre's program or how to help schools affected by the terrorist attacks is available online (www.cmionline.org).