Policy 2405 - Memorials and Commemoration
The Richland School District adopts this policy to establish consistent, equitable and safe guidelines for memorials created after the loss of a student or staff member. The Richland School District recognizes that the loss of a student or staff member deeply impacts students, staff, families, and the community. Through implementation of this policy, The Richland School District expects to establish consistent, trauma-informed, and equitable guidelines for memorials so that students, staff, families and the community can heal from the loss without causing or worsening trauma.
Definitions
In order to provide transparent, consistent, trauma-informed and equitable implementation of the memorials policy, it is imperative that there be a shared understanding of the components that surround crisis response and memorials as they relate to the schools in the district.
- Memorial: Objects or activities to remember a deceased person or an event that resulted in death.
- Building Support Team: A designated group of staff members, within each school building, who plan and implement mental health support, including grief recovery. The work of the Support Team is centered around providing support, safety and structure.
- Crisis: Any natural disaster or unexpected event that negatively affects a student, a staff member or a significant group of the school population and usually involves serious emotional, psychological and/or physical injury or death.
- Impact: The magnitude of the potential loss or seriousness of the crisis
- Support Room: District level crisis teams, when appropriate, will provide Support Rooms, at impacted buildings, where students and/or staff can gather to grieve. Crisis Team members and mental health staff will be available to assist students through the grieving process and offer appropriate activities to assist with grieving.
Services, Memorials and Commemorations
Students wishing to attend a funeral service occurring during the school day may do so with parent permissions. These students will be excused from class and will be required to make up any missing assignments. Special arrangements will be made for siblings and/or relatives of a deceased student or staff member.
Temporary Memorials
It is recognized that temporary school memorials for deceased students and staff allow students and staff to express their grief in a positive and constructive manner. Temporary memorials may be displayed in a designated area within the school building until the day of the funeral, but for no longer than one week following the death, and will then be given to the custodial family by designated school officials. Temporary memorials can only be displayed in administrator designated areas monitored by school officials and cannot alter or damage District furniture, equipment, or property.
If the death of a student or staff member occurred in a public location accessible by community members, such as a crash site, District staff will not provide memorial monitoring.
Authority
The building principal or designee, in consultation with the Superintendent, has the discretion to remove inappropriate temporary memorials that are in violation of School Board Policy/Procedure, the student code of conduct, or are likely to cause a substantial disruption to the school environment.
Acceptable Temporary Memorials
Students and staff may benefit from expressing their grief in different ways within designated Support Rooms. Students and staff may partake in appropriate activities such as: writing letters and sympathy cards, listing the attributes of lost friends or loved ones, developing memory books, creating a mural or collage, writing a poem, story or song about the person(s) who died. These types of memorials will not be displayed within the school but be delivered to the appropriate family member at a time designated by school administration. The building principal or designee will identify a temporary memorial site on school property, like the locker of the deceased student, the guidelines listed under Temporary Memorials will apply.
Permanent Memorials
No permanent memorials will be established.
Other Considerations
Some of the items listed below could be labeled district traditions and are considered events or milestones in the lifecycle of a school year or a student’s school career. Special consideration must be paid to these items.
Yearbooks
While yearbooks are a way to formalize memories, it can be traumatizing to see students and staff who died highlighted in this format. Therefore, there will be no memorial acknowledgement (this includes special messages, memorial pages, (religious symbols/images printed next to the picture etc.) in school yearbooks. Student and staff pictures will only appear in the yearbook within the school year that the death occurred. (For example, a student who passes in eleventh grade will be pictured in the 11th grade yearbook but not in subsequent yearbooks or 12th grade). These guidelines shall be applied to all deaths, regardless of the circumstances.
Given the constraints of printing timelines, and in an effort to maintain equity and inclusion for all deceased students and staff, the following parameters may be implemented:
- If a student or staff member dies before school pictures have been taken, a picture may be submitted to the yearbook for that school year.
- If a student or staff member’s picture has been taken but it has not gone to print, the picture will remain with family approval.
- If a student or staff member dies after the yearbook has gone to print, no amendment will be made to the picture.
Graduation Ceremonies
Graduation is a celebration of accomplishment. Finding a healthy balance between acknowledging a loss, while maintaining the celebratory nature of the ceremony and protecting the emotional safety of participants and attendees is the goal.
Acknowledgement of Deceased Members
With family approval, the graduation program will include the names of all deceased students, regardless of graduation status, who would have been members of the graduating class during grades 9-12. The names of those students will also be announced during the ceremony.
If the student had earned all the requirements for a Richland School District High School Diploma, the students name will be announced alongside the other graduates and the principal or designee will extend an offer for a private meeting with the family of the deceased to present graduation credentials.
Anniversary Dates
School-wide recognition of anniversary dates will not occur; however, staff will be available to support students during these times.
Existing Commemorations
Existing memorials established prior to the implementation of this policy may remain intact. District staff and/or finances may only be used to maintain current memorials as part of regular maintenance processes and/or to ensure safe conditions. The district reserves the right to remove or relocate a memorial if it is not or cannot be maintained, is contrary to the overall educational needs and well-being of students or hinders future construction or maintenance work.
Adoption: