It was one month ago a student in the Columbus Community School District passed away unexpectedly.

Superintendent Jeff Maeder says dealing with the death of a student is never easy, but they had a crisis plan ready to address the situation. He says first and foremost was support and condolences to the student’s family while making sure fellow students had access to counselors to discuss their feelings. Maeder says the Area Education Agency (AEA) played a key role in helping students cope, “We utilized our AEA social worker and we got a ton of support from AEA. They sent people that were assigned in other school districts for a couple days following and for however long we would’ve needed them, and just be available for students and staff.”

Maeder says while everyone pulled together and we responded in the best way that we could, “saying we did a good job” doesn’t really fit the difficult situation. He says they tried to make  decisions that were well thought out in a collaborative effort. Maeder says they also have crisis plans for such things as fire, chemical spill and active shooter scenarios, but hopefully they’ll never have to implement them.