School personnel deal with the most trivial events students go through - from breaking up with a boyfriend to having a fight with their parents or best friend - to more serious events that have an impact on entire school communities.

And local school systems - recognizing their responsibility to help students and staff deal with such incidents - have in place various procedures to handle traumatic events.

Bowling Green High School had to implement such procedures last week when a junior student took his life. The school provided grief counseling among other measures to help its students and staff faced with the traumatic event get through it.

“We try to do what any family would try to do when there is a traumatic situation,” said principal Gary Fields. “We try to cope, give comfort and provide an environment that is caring and nurturing.”

Fields said while last week was full of the hardest days a principal could have and counselors, teachers and students have faced, Warren County and other districts outside the county came to BGHS’ aide. He said at some point, when the time is appropriate, faculty will sit down and discuss what was done to help and what can be done in the future if such a tragedy were to happen again.

“Every situation is different, every student is different, so schools do things differently,” he said. “But these last three days, faculty and staff really stepped up for our kids.

“It was pretty powerful. They went above and beyond to help our kids.”

Bowling Green Independent Schools superintendent Joe Tinius said the formal procedure for handling tragedies begins with notification. Once notified, things are put into motion: contacting guidance counselors in the district to report to the school involved, meeting with the principal when they arrive, determining a place in the building where students can go if they feel the need to speak to counselors individually or as a group.

In addition, Tinius said, the district also makes a phone call to the Green River Regional Educational Cooperative region crisis team - a team of guidance counselors from across the region that are extensively trained in handling emergencies.

“There were anywhere from 12 to 15 counselors available throughout the day,” Tinius said.

The third step, Tinius said, is to determine how news of the incident will be disbursed to the students. Typically, a brief statement with the basic information is prepared and given to the teachers to read to the students at a certain time.

“This is so students get the same information at the same time,” Tinius said. “Instead of someone walking in off the street or district personnel saying what happened, it’s someone they see and know every day delivering the message to them.

“And (teachers) realize unfortunately from time to time it is part of the job.”

Marti Guelde, a guidance counselor at Greenwood High School, said a lot of times teachers have relationships with the child involved in the incident. She said counselors will go to teachers’ rooms for a couple of days if need be.

“And that typically does happen,” she said.

The age of the student plays some factor into the information being distributed to parents, Tinius said. The district will often use an automated calling system, in which every parent hears a statement from the school principal - in this case, it came from Fields.

Guelde said all Warren County schools have a protocol on how to handle deaths and tragedies - much like that of Bowling Green Schools. At Greenwood, Guelde said they’ve had tragedies such as suicides, students killed, students who’ve died in car accidents and students who’ve died from diseases.

The school has a phone tree, and anytime something happens that phone tree is activated. She said the faculty will meet before the start of school, where the principal reads a statement. That statement is given to teachers and read verbatim to students, so they all receive the same information, Guelde said. She said while the school has five counselors on site - depending on how many students are grieving - a crisis team can be called in to help.

“Sometimes pastors will come in, and we allow that,” she said.

Guelde said that at Greenwood, the grieving site or “drop-in room” - a place for students and faculty to gather with each other - usually is the library. During a crisis, the space is open to any student, because even when a student may not know the person who died, he or she can be affected.

“When it’s someone that’s their age, in their school and in their grade, it’s scary ,” she said.

Guelde said the school will usually round up that student’s work and send it to the family; it also tries to erase that student from its database, so school information is not sent to that student’s home later, spurring renewed grief.

Fields said Bowling Green High does what is done at Warren Central, Warren East and Greenwood high schools - basically, whatever the students need to help them get through whatever events they’re experiencing.

Tinius said while this is not the first time the district has had to utilize its procedure for handling traumatic events, he thinks it is the first time the district has to deal with such a tragedy.

“The district provided counseling service throughout the day, and students and parents were made aware that there is information on the district Web site that they could refer to if they needed additional help,” he said.

On the district’s Web site is a link titled “Signs of Depression;” it links to another site with information and statistics on teen depression and tips on how to address depression with children and teenagers.

“Our plan is one of those plans we hope we never have to use, but if we do, it works well,” Tinius said. “The biggest thing is letting students know there are people available to help them get through this.”