When Personal Counseling or Safety and Security
is warranted to handle a student's psychological emergency, the
student's family or significant other will be contacted if it
becomes necessary to protect the health and safety of the student
or other persons. If the student is under 18 years old, parents
MUST be contacted. (Information may be released based upon
the Family Rights and Privacy Act of 1974 if the knowledge of
such information is necessary to protect the health or safety
of the student or other persons.)
After the student is out of immediate crisis , the
college Personal Counselor or Security Officer will provide written
notification of the incident to a member of the college's Crisis
Team. The Crisis Team consists
Director of Health and Wellness
Director of Disabled Programs and Students Services
Director of Security
Dean of Educational Programs/Student Discipline
Members of the Crisis Team will then provide appropriate
follow-up intervention for the student.
Other Emotionally-Troubled Student Behaviors
The most common types of emotionally-troubled students
that you will encounter in the classroom are:
Student in POOR CONTACT WITH REALITY
Student UNDER THE INFLUENCE OF DRUGS & ALCOHOL
The categories identified here are over-simplified.
You will likely find that in reality, the characteristics of students
in these general categories, described below, will overlap.
Similarly, the actions you should take in handling such students
in your class may overlap. You will find a simple chart
that summarizes the characteristics and suggested responses at the
end of this section.
Aggression can take many forms, from very subtle,
passive acts to violent outbursts. Aggression is the result
of being frustrated and feeling out of control. Some aggressive
people express hostility immediately without regard for their circumstances
or the people around them. Other aggressive students express their
hostility through explosive outbursts and the rest of the time deny
their anger and frustration. Many times students who are verbally
or physically aggressive feel inadequate and use the
hostile behavior as a way of building up their self-esteem.
Often they feel that you will reject them so that they become hostile
and reject you first to protect themselves from being hurt. They
may see you as attempting to control them and lash out to try and
gain a sense of control. It is important to remember that the
student is generally not angry at you personally but is angry at
his/her world, and you may be the object of the pent-up frustrations.
THE DEPRESSED STUDENT
Typically, a depressed student may
feel guilty or angry at him/herself; has trouble concentrating
or remembering; loses interest in schoolwork or other activities;
and/or feels worthless or inadequate. Physical symptoms include:
changes in appetite (increase or decrease), sleep disturbances
(or excessive sleeping), low energy level. The more depressed
student will convey a greater sense of helplessness and
hopelessness. Often these feelings are expressed verbally
or in writing.
Many depressed students feel suicidal.
It is important to take all suicidal comments seriously and
to immediately refer students to a member of the College's
Talking of ending things (e.g., quitting school,
Giving things away
Taking care of business
Statements of hopelessness
Sudden lift in depression, surge in energy
Facts about suicides:
College students have higher suicide rates than
non-college people of the same age.
More men commit suicide, but more women attempt.
There are more attempts at the beginning and
end of semesters.
People committing suicide rarely want to die.
They really want to end the pain they experience.
Talking about suicide will not plant the idea
in a person's mind but will probably relieve some of the tension
Suicides rarely occur without warning.
Feeling isolated (no support group) increases
the likelihood for suicide.
The more developed the suicide plan, the greater
the likelihood for suicide.
If the student has made attempts in the past,
he/she is at higher risk for future (and possibly more serious)
STUDENT IN POOR CONTACT WITH REALITY
This student may appear withdrawn,
frightened, unaware or unconcerned with
classroom protocol or acceptable social behavior, disruptive,
confused or illogical. Written or verbal communication may be
disjointed with little or no connection between topics. Their speech
may be rapid or slowed down. They may also pay a great deal of attention
to some unimportant detail that is being discussed or may be generally
scattered and incoherent. The student may make inappropriate
emotional responses. He/she may overreact to his/her feelings
with excessive anger, sadness or exuberance. Others may
demonstrate a complete lack of emotional expression and speak in
These students tend to distort their perceptions
of the world in such a way that innocent occurrences have special
meaning to them (e.g., interpreting an innocent facial expression
or tone of voice as being hostile or persecutory). They may experience
themselves as especially powerful or important or may believe that
people are trying to control or harm them in some way. The student
may experience hallucinations, most commonly voices speaking
to them. They may appear to be on drugs; however, that assumption
should not be made.
An anxious student may experience feelings
of worry, fear, and anticipate some misfortune.
He/she may complain of difficulty concentrating, being always
on edge, being easily distracted, memory distortions, or
trouble sleeping. The student may also state unreasonably high
self-expectations and be very critical of his/her present performance.
This student may constantly think about and discuss his/her problems
and possible solutions but be too fearful to take action.
The extreme result of feeling anxious is a panic attack
in which the student's overwhelming sense of dread and fear is accompanied
by physical symptoms such as rapid heart palpitations, sweating,
trembling or dizziness.
Typically, the utmost time and energy
given to this student is simply not enough. A manipulative student
often seeks to control your time and unconsciously believes
that the amount of time received is a reflection of personal
worth. In many instances, these people feel incompetent to handle
their own life. Usually, they are immature and self-centered.
Students who are paranoid see themselves
as the focal point of everyone's behavior and everything that happens
has special meaning. They are tense, cautious, mistrustful
and have few friends. These students tend to interpret minor
oversights as significant personal rejection. Often, many overreact
to insignificant occurrences. They are overly concerned with
fairness and being treated equally. They project blame onto
others and will express anger in roundabout ways. Many times
they feel worthless and inadequate.
STUDENT UNDER THE INFLUENCE
Alcohol is the most widely used psychoactive
drug. It is common to find alcohol abusers in college populations
also abusing other drugs, both prescription and illicit. Fads and
peer pressure affect patterns of use. Currently, alcohol is
the preferred drug on college campuses. The effects of alcohol
on the user are well known to most of us. Student alcohol abuse
is most often identified by faculty when irresponsible, unpredictable
behavior affects the learning situation (i.e., drunk and disorderly
in class), or when a combination of health and social impairments
associated with alcohol abuse sabotages student performance. Because
of the denial that exists in most substance abusers,
it is important to express your concern about the student
not in terms of suspicions about alcohol and other drugs but
in terms of specific changes in behavior or performance.
to a Student in Crisis
If you encounter a student in your class who appears
to be emotionally troubled, the most important thing you can do
is to refer the student to appropriate resources for intervention.
Until that intervention occurs, you will be faced with the challenge
of interacting with that student in your class. Your objective
should be to DO NO HARM. The following chart gives
some guidelines on responding to students experiencing various forms
of emotional -crisis. You may wish to keep this printer-friendly
version (responding_studentcrisis.pdf) with you as a readily-accessible