District Crisis Intervention Team

The DCIT is a group of SBCUSD volunteers deployed to support school site staff and students in times of crisis - most commonly with the death of a staff member or students. DCIT provides initial notification and grief processing through a psycho-educational model.

Department and Site administrators can contact the SWSS Director (Colleen Williams) or Assistant Director (Martina Beach-Hedges) for DCIT deployment specifics.

SWSS Support

Director: Colleen Williams

Assistant Director: Martina Beach Hedges

Office Administrator Support: Ursela Gonzales

Mental Health Team Liaisons: Michael Bennie, Nicoleta Dragan

DCIT Members - Currently 25 Members Strong!!

Crisis Leads: Sean Antos (School Psychologist), Ruth Cook (Program Specialist), Vasty Garcia (Counselor), Maisha Turner (Counselor), Tim Odening (Counselor)

Planners: Brenda Freshwater (Program Specialist), Melinda Goggin (Program Specialist), Michael Partida (Counselor), Jessika Shields (School Psychologist), Teresa Ramos (Program Specialist)

Interventionists: Alexis Accuar (School Psychologist), Silvia Aguirre (Program Specialist), Maria Alegria (Counselor), Michael Bennie (Program Specialist), Yesenia Ceballos (Counselor), Tasha Cooper (School Psychologist), Xenia Diaz (Counselor), Deidre Jones (Counselor), Nicoleta Dragan (Program Specialist), Bianca Galdamez (Counselor), Marisa Gomez (Program Specialist), Jason Johnson (Counselor), Kirstyn Martin (Program Specialist), Kamila Juhnke (Counselor), Kara Tofte (Program Specialist)

PREPaRE Trainers

SBCUSD DCIT Trainers: Sean Antos, Ruth Cook, Vasty Garcia, Maisha Turner

PREPaRE is the crisis response model SBCUSD follows. The PREPaRE curriculum has been developed by the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP). As school crisis prevention and response, PREPaRE is an evidence-based resource ideal for schools committed to improving and strengthening their school safety and crisis management plans and emergency response. PREPaRE is the only comprehensive, nationally available training curriculum developed by educators (each of whom have firsthand school crisis response experience and formal training) for educators.

The PREPaRE model emphasizes that members of a school crisis response teams must be involved in the following hierarchical and sequential set of activities:

P—Prevent and prepare for crises

R—Reaffirm physical health & welfare, and perceptions of safety & security

E—Evaluate psychological trauma risk

P—Provide interventions

a—and

R—Respond to mental health needs

E—Examine the effectiveness of crisis preparedness

SWSS Department: 2022