Lessons in Grief
In moments of crisis, school administrators draw up action plans--snow-emergency routes, fire-safety drills and, most recently, school-shooting lockdowns. Last week Scott Feder, principal of Dutch Neck Elementary School in Princeton Junction, N.J., installed a three-part "grieving plan" to console a kindergartner whose father never came home from work Sept. 11. There was only one problem. Though the newspaper and other students reported the man had perished, the family was still holding out hope. The young girl had been told that "Daddy's going to be home very late."
No lesson plan could provide comfort for the thousands of New...