Posted on: Friday, July 30, 2004
Schools to help Guard kids cope
| • | Citizen soldiers taste real war |
By Derrick DePledge
Advertiser Staff Writer
The military and Hawai'i public schools will train school staff to help the estimated 800 to 1,000 students with family members being sent to Iraq with the Hawai'i Army National Guard.
School staff will learn how to help students cope with anxiety and provide counseling if family members are wounded or killed.
More than 2,000 citizen soldiers will report for active duty Aug. 16 and will later begin training for a yearlong deployment to Iraq.
Maj. Gen. Robert Lee, the state's adjutant general, told the state Board of Education yesterday that he has so far identified 26 public school employees and teachers who will be mobilized. He expects that number to double.
Lee also has identified more than 400 students whose parents will be deployed, and most attend schools on O'ahu. He said he expects about 800 to 1,000 students to be affected, and he will provide their names to the state Department of Education.
Teams from the Joint Venture Education Forum will help train school staff. Lee also encouraged schools to adopt military units and send letters to deployed soldiers.
Reach Derrick DePledge at ddepledge@honoluluadvertiser.com or 525-8084.
