School ‘Prepared’ For First Day Back Since Death of Student

For the second time in slightly more than six months, will be in crisis response mode Monday, after a in Fort Lee’s section of the Palisades Interstate Park near the George Washington Bridge late Friday night.

School officials said Sunday they are ready to support students and staff impacted by the death of 11th-grader John Graniello when they return to school for the first time since the tragic incident.

“There are a whole litany of things that are being done and that will be done, and yes, we will be prepared for tomorrow,” said Fort Lee Board of Education President Arthur Levine Sunday. “It’s very similar to what we did last time.”

It’s the second time this school year that a student from the high school has died unexpectedly. A 10th-grader in December, which was the last time the school district’s was forced to take action.

Interim Superintendent of Schools Steven Engravalle detailed some of what went on over the weekend and what will go on at the high school Monday—and to a lesser extent at , where John Graniello’s brother is an eighth-grader—saying the district needs to “start healing as fast as possible and just offer as much support as we can to as many people as we can for as long as we have to.”

“We’ll begin the healing as soon as possible, just like we did before, and we’re still healing from that circumstance,” Engravalle said. “I was proud of the way it was handled the first time by our staff and our students, our parents and our community, and that makes me extra confident.”

On Saturday, the Crisis Response Team, including Engravalle, Sharon Amato, Levine, school board vice president Linda McCue, the high school administration, guidance counselors and school psychologists, convened almost immediately after school officials learned from Fort Lee police that the victim was a student at the high school.

The Graniello family was contacted by high school principal Priscilla Church to offer condolences, but also to offer any support the school or the district could provide, Engravalle said.

The junior’s teachers were called individually so the team could put together what Engravalle called a “hot list” of his closest friends, and then the parents of the kids on the list were also contacted.

“Those are kids who are going to be extra sensitive, need extra attention, and I wanted the parents to know that we’re available today—not just to wait until the kids come to school,” Engravalle explained Sunday.

School officials also reached out to the Traumatic Loss Coalition (TLC), a county-based service and the group that helped set up the trauma center in the school’s media center in December—something TLC will do again Monday.

Also on Monday, the following will take place at the school, according to Engravalle:

• The day will begin at 8 a.m. with an emergency faculty meeting with all teachers to ensure everyone is on the same page, although Engravalle said he emailed everyone on Saturday.
• For students, the day will open with an assembly at 8:30 a.m., as soon as they arrive at school “to just kind of introduce and acknowledge the situation,” Engravalle said.
• Guidance counselors and child study team members will be deployed to the high school.
• A teacher from , who is trained in dealing with traumatic loss and associated with TLC, will be brought to the high school for the day and replaced by a substitute teacher.
• The school district is bringing in extra substitute teachers for the day in case any staff members become overwhelmed.
• Support staff will also be available in the faculty lounge in case teachers need support.
• One of the child study team members or counselors will follow John Graniello’s schedule.

Engravalle said final exams scheduled for Monday will go on as planned, but that if a kid is too upset to take the exam, or takes the exam and doesn’t do well because he or she is too upset, the school district is prepared to make special accommodations on a case-by-case basis.

“The final exam situation actually helps us, in my opinion, because the kids do get out of school early, but teachers don’t go home at 1:30,” Engravalle said. “So we actually have time after school when the teachers have to be there but there’s no school. So if kids want to go hang out with their favorite teacher and talk, that’s an actual benefit for us.”

Engravalle called the two tragedies happening in the school community in such a short period of time “surreal” and an “anomaly,” but he also said, “The key is that we were prepared based upon the hard work that we did ahead of time to be prepared.”

“I think we’re going to pull through it,” Engravalle said. “We’re going to be there for our students, we’re going to be there for our staff, we’re going to be there for our parents and whoever else needs our support, and we’ll heal.”

Information regarding funeral arrangements will be released by the school district as soon as it is available, said Engravalle, who posted a letter to parents, guardians and community members on the school district’s website Saturday.