To the editor: No grief counseling offered at SVHS


I have a niece at Southern Vance High School who has called me and informed me of more problems with the administration at this school than I have EVER imagined.

But this one issue has finally gone beyond surprise.

Quentin Rodwell was a student at SVHS and a friend to many staff and students–including my niece. The death of this young man, who’s 17th birthday will be on Tuesday, was a tragedy that no parent or community should have to suffer. And yet, the administration failed these friends of Quentin’s by not providing them with some sort of grief counseling at the school.

These kids were forced to deal with this on their own. Some have family members, like my niece, to talk to, but let’s face facts—some do not. Some of these kids only have the staff at the school to rely on for help and they didn’t. Unfortunately, our children are faced with these issues more often than we all would like to think about, and other schools seem to be able to offer the comfort to these kids on their own “turf”, in confidence. But why didn’t Southern???

From my understanding, not even the counselors at the school offered assistance. Why? I want some answers, not only for my niece, but for everyone who was touched by this young man. Oh sure, they acknowledged Quentin on the TV monitors in the school, but in my opinion, that wasn’t enough. In today’s society, these types of tragedies are happening entirely too often and we as a community need to step up and help the ones left behind be able to cope with these situations. It is not the fault of a lot of these kids that things have gotten to this point. But we as adults need to be there to help them understand even if we don’t understand ourselves. It is our role as parents, as adults, and as educators.

Southern Vance was wrong and I hope that the lack of support to Quentin’s friends doesn’t have further repercussions.

Sincerely,

Chrissy Ritchie
Oxford