‘Handle with Care:’ LSC, LPD partner to flag students going through traumatic situations

The program will mirror one West Lafayette police and schools started a year ago. Plus, did you hear those jets over town, and more.

Jul 24, 2024

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Editor’s note: This story has been updated with more information from West Lafayette Police Department since the original edition went to subscribers.

‘HANDLE WITH CARE:’ LSC, LPD PARTNER TO FLAG STUDENTS GOING THROUGH TRAUMATIC SITUATIONS

Starting this year, Lafayette schools will get a daily update on students who have been through some sort of contact with police or other first responders – from car crashes to house fires to witnessing domestic abuse cases – in a program meant to help flag kids who need a dose of empathy instead of discipline when acting out.

Handle With Care, a statewide Indiana Department of Health effort already in 37 districts in 16 counties across the state, will be a partnership between the Lafayette School Corp. and the Lafayette Police Department. The program, laid out this week for the LSC school board, will mirror one West Lafayette schools and police started a year ago.

Laurie Rinehart, LSC’s assistant superintendent for secondary curriculum, said the program will help school administrators approach student care and discipline differently, given additional background that something traumatic is happening in their lives outside the classroom.

Principals and administrators in LSC went through training this summer. Rinehart said that school counselors and nurses will be trained later. Teachers eventually would be brought in to the program.

“If you know the whole story of a student and why they're coming in (to the principal’s office), why their head’s down or just that something's happened, how discipline might be administered could be totally different,” Rinehart said. “I do think this is a game changer for our students who experience trauma regularly. … Instead of poking and prodding, there might be a different sort of understanding and approach, knowing for sure that something else is going on in a student’s life.”

Rinehart, who soon will move to Battle Ground Middle School to be principal, predicted the effort could reduce suspensions and expulsions and de-escalate other daily situations in LSC schools.

Rinehart said the district had been pushing to start Handle With Care for two years. Lafayette Police Chief Scott Galloway said he saw the value in the program but that he’d been wary about devoting an officer’s time each day. Galloway said that changed after the police department added non-sworn staff that could coordinate things with the schools.

Amanda Ferguson is LPD’s homeless and community outreach coordinator, a new position with the department. She’ll coordinate things for the police department.

Ferguson said officers will include names of children younger than 18 in reports whenever they’re part of a call. She said those won’t all include major incidents, but anytime kids face situations where police officers, firefighters or other first responders are called to a scene. It could include when children are listed as victims or witnesses to crimes or other situations.

Ferguson said names collected from those reports from the previous 24 hours will be shared with LSC, without specific details about what sort of incident happened. The confidential notes about a student will simply read: Handle with Care.

“It’s not meant to be an invitation for teachers to go up to a kiddo and say, ‘I heard that the police were at your house last night,’” Ferguson said. “It’s just a chance to show that kid a little bit of extra care and compassion, if they know. Maybe if they're asking to go to the nurse several times, then they know why. Because, kids put all that stress in their stomachs, and so then their bellies hurt. Or maybe they didn't get enough sleep at night, because the police were at their house for an undetermined amount of time.”

She said the initial moves toward the Handle with Care concept came when she was with the Tippecanoe County Health Department and working with the county’s overdose fatality review team.

“The question in those meetings was, Who’s taking care of these kids when there’s one of these traumatic events?” Ferguson said. “Then we thought, who’s taking care of kids during any traumatic event? They’re going to school and nobody knows.”

Devon Moore is social services and crisis response specialist with the West Lafayette Police Department. She was in on those initial local discussions with the Indiana Department of Health and helped craft a Handle with Care partnership with West Lafayette schools. That partnership will start its second year in August.

“The schools have been very open to it,” Moore said. “I think that it's been helpful, especially for kids who otherwise the schools wouldn't have had any clue what was going on and why this particular kid had such a drastic change in their behavior.”

Shawn Greiner, West Lafayette school superintendent, said the district has been open to expanding the program.

“From our perspective, it is always good to be in a healthy partnership like this that can help us to understand information about a student allowing us to provide any necessary support and empathy,” Greiner said.

Moore said she comes across between seven and 10 cases a month that she passes along to West Lafayette schools. She said there were 54 Handle with Care notifications that went to West Side schools during the 2023-24 school year. Of those, Moore said, 52 came between January and May 2024.

“I think this speaks to the increasing recognition by officers of the potential impact to kids when they are on scene,” Moore said. “So they are taking the extra time to get the child’s information and attach it to the call notes so that a notification can be made. While this may not seem like a large number, I truly believe that even helping ensure that one child receives the needed support following a potentially traumatic impact is invaluable.”

Ferguson said dry runs through reports ahead of the school year for Lafayette School Corp. show numbers of about five a day.

“For the police department, it’s definitely a prevention tool,” Ferguson said. “If we can just do a little bit of preventive measures and get these kiddos the compassion that they need up front, then they're less likely to get in trouble at school, to run away or do something where they’re going to have police contact the next day, the next week, the next month.”

The Lafayette school board is expected to consider ratifying the agreement with LPD in August.

THIS AND THAT/OTHER READS …

The Almost Home Humane Society will remain Lafayette’s animal shelter through August, under a one-month contract extension approved Tuesday by the city’s board of works. The contract, most recently extended in 2023, was set to expire July 31, as Lafayette, West Lafayette and Tippecanoe County prepare to align with the Humane Society for Tippecanoe County and a $7.5 million animal shelter and animal control office close to opening at the former Cooperative Extension Service site at 3150 Sagamore Parkway S. A ribbon cutting on that facility is expected Aug. 8. The contract extension with Almost Home Humane Society and its facilities on South Second Street will cost $25,000 and run through Aug. 31. That amount was the same as the terms in the initial contract. The agreement allows seven-day extensions, at $5,769 each, if the city needs more time.
The J&C had this report on a fatal crash into a field Monday evening in Benton County: “Crop duster killed in plane crash southwest of Oxford.”
Did you hear the rumble of that military flyover just before 2 p.m. Tuesday in and around Lafayette/West Lafayette? Purdue Airport says they were F-16 Vipers from Fort Wayne, via the Air National Guard on a training flight. (The photo below is from the U.S. Air Force, not the actual ones that flew over houses in Lafayette.)

Here’s the opening of a report by Casey Smith, writing for the Indiana Capital Chronicle, about the wrangling still going on over proposed changes to the state’s high school diplomas: “As state education officials pump the brakes on a plan to overhaul Indiana’s high school diplomas, concerns from Hoosier teachers, students and families are mounting over the proposed graduation requirements. With the deadline fast approaching for the State Board of Education to finalize the changes, state leaders are asking for more statewide feedback — including what’s expected to be a lengthy public forum scheduled for next week.” For more, here’s the full report: “Feedback on Indiana’s diploma overhaul plan continues to pour in as state officials deliberate.”
A letter from U.S. Secret Service Director Kimberly Cheatle to staff read, “As your Director, I take full responsibility for the security lapse.” On Tuesday, Cheatle resigned in connection with a sniper’s assassination attempt on Donald Trump during the former president’s rally two weeks ago in Pennsylvania. Here are details, via the Washington Post: “Secret Service Director Cheatle resigns in connection with Trump rally shooting.”
In an Inverse feature dubbed “Reel Science,” reporter Doris Elín Urritia had fun piece that included a conversation with Robin Tanamachi, a Purdue associate professor of atmospheric science, about how realistic it would be for humans to somehow blow up or otherwise stop a tornado – the main point in the new flick, “Twisters.” From the piece, Tanamachi said: “I get these emails like every year from people asking, you know, why don't we just blow missiles into tornadoes, or, why don't we just fire missiles into tornadoes and use them to blow the tornado up.” The reason why it might be good for the movies but not in a real world of Emergency Management makes for an interesting read: “Can You Stop A Tornado? Atmospheric Scientists Reveal the Truth About the Biggest Plot Point in ‘Twisters.’” The kicker was in the drophead: “Even if you could, doesn't mean you should.”

AND, FINALLY … EXTEND YOUR BASED IN LAFAYETTE SUBSCRIPTION BY CHIPPING FOR THE CASAs FOR KIDS FUND

Signups continue for the 2024 edition of the Subaru CASA Cycling Challenge, a 24-hour event held Aug. 10-11 at the two-mile Subaru of Indiana Automotive test track in Lafayette. Some remnant of the Bangert Brothers team will be there, again, at least to put in some ceremonial laps and lend support to the CASAs for Kids Fund here in Tippecanoe County.

The CASAs for Kids Fund is set up for abused or neglected kids who wind up in the court system and in foster care, offering funding for clothing, bedding, school band instruments, field trip or summer camp fees, dance class, equipment to join sports teams and other things the system can’t provide. The CASAs for Kids Fund gets them that stuff and gets them that much closer to a normal life as a kid. And fundraising tied to the 24-hour ride gets the CASAs for Kids Fund geared up for the next year.

The offer: This year, I’ll add a free month to your full-access Based in Lafayette subscription for a donation of any amount to the Bangert Brothers team or team members. If you’re game, here’s the link.

And if you’re up for the ride, here’s a way in: casachallenge.org.

Thanks, again, to today’s sponsor Wintek.

Thank you for supporting Based in Lafayette, an independent, local reporting project. Free and full-ride subscription options are ready for you here.

Tips, story ideas? I’m at davebangert1@gmail.com.

Based in Lafayette, Indiana

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