Help Aimed at Students Under War Stress : Home front: San Clemente High prepares to meet the needs of those youngsters from military families.

The staff meeting Friday at San Clemente High School began like any other, but it quickly turned to events a world away in the Persian Gulf.

“Things are going to get much, much worse,” school psychologist Loren O’Connor told teachers and staff members, “and we are going to experience injuries or casualties.”

As the crisis worsens--11 Marines from nearby Camp Pendleton were the first ground troops killed in combat this week--the high school staff has been placed on “alert” status to help students cope with the war.

It is a real concern for a school located in a city that backs up to the north entrance of Camp Pendleton. About 150 students come from military families, and another 50 have cousins, uncles, aunts, boyfriends or girlfriends who are also stationed in the Persian Gulf.

“I want to stress to you the sensitivity of the situation,” Principal Jim Krembas told the staff. “We see it daily as the buses arrive and we see the faces of the kids. You may not, by the time they get to your classrooms, but we see it on their faces as they read about it and hear about it . . . that changes are taking place in them.”

Having already gone through workshops on how to handle war-related stress, staffers were briefed on procedures and group-counseling sessions that will begin next week, when there may be a surge in hostilities.

O’Connor and Krembas warned teachers against joking about the war or stereotyping people of different cultures, since a small percentage of the school’s students come from the Middle East.

“Please be careful in the classroom, gang, be really careful,” Krembas urged.

Among the “do’s and don’ts” for teachers listed in a packet distributed by O’Connor were some basic rules: When asked about the war, they should give students only factual and accurate information; they should use “extreme caution” in sharing their opinions of the war, and they should discuss the war only when it naturally occurs within the context of their lessons.

O’Connor said in an interview later that when the Persian Gulf crisis first began, teachers made the mistake of talking about it too much.

“First period in biology, they would talk about it--second period, third period, fourth period--so that by the time they (students) got to the end of the day, they were exhausted,” he said.

The school psychologist said students from military families have expressed the hope that teachers show support and understanding, and “not to talk about body bags, not to talk about casualties, and to keep things as normal as possible.”

Staff members were also given a list of all students with ties to the military, phone numbers of the crisis-intervention team, early-warning signs of stress, and a list of books dealing with anger and death.

“You may see some of these kids a bit more depressed, not doing their homework, falling down on their grades, irritable,” O’Connor told the staff. “I still think you need to be real firm with the kids and be real clear on what their (class) requirements are and what they need to do, but also you have to be pretty empathetic and understand where they are coming from.

“For some of these kids, school is not the highlight of their day, unfortunately, and when you compound it with this, it’s even more difficult for them,” he added.

The school may also be the best place for the students to receive the guidance they need, the psychologist said.

“I kind of assumed the (Camp Pendleton) Family Service Center would be able to provide more services, but that’s not quite true,” O’Connor said. “The Family Service Center is absolutely overwhelmed.”