Land O’ Lakes, FL – (March 26, 2015) – Hudson Elementary, Middle, and High schools all are doing pretty well despite the difficulty of coping with the shooting deaths of two students and the wounding of their brother.
The first graders in Brady Pimentel’s class were watching a video and were doing very well. Some of the brothers' closest friends were taking advantage of the counselors, but generally, all the schools were doing well.
Hudson elementary and middle schools are recording phone messages to parents. The middle school also sent a letter home with students in Kevin Pimentel's classes. The elementary school is sending a separate message to students in Brady's first grade class than they are to the rest of the school, because the first grade class was the only group that was told that something "very sad" had happened to Brady. They didn't tell the rest of the students anything in deference to parents who would rather be the ones to break the news.
Crisis counselors visited Kevin's classes to break the news. He was in 7th grade gifted classes at Hudson Middle School. He attended Chasco Middle School last year, so we are offering assistance to his teachers and 7th grade gifted students who were in 6th grade gifted with Kevin. The attached photo is Kevin’s 6th grade school picture from Chasco Middle.
Trevor Pimentel is a 9th grader who takes virtual classes at Hudson High School in the morning and attends the Marchman Technical College culinary academy in the afternoon. The high schools did not have crisis teams at their schools.
The middle school students were the most likely to seek assistance from the crisis team. The counselors saw about 30 students and a handful went home with parents. I've tweeted pictures of some of the cards the middle school students created as part of their grief counseling (@cobbelinda).
A couple of teachers from the middle school and the elementary school the three oldest boys attended - Fox Hollow Elementary - were stricken so they went home to be with their families. We have a psychologist with our educator assistance program who is reaching out to the adults who are grieving.
Crisis team members will be at schools again tomorrow. They suspect that more students may seek out their services tomorrow after they've received the news at home. If they're needed next week, they'll return to the schools. Also, the schools are reaching out to the boys’ mother, Helen Campochiaro, to see if they can do anything to help her process this unimaginable tragedy.
“Our thoughts and prayers are with Ms. Campochiaro and their family,” said Superintendent Kurt Browning. “She is dealing with a nightmare no parent should have to endure.”
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