The Thanksgiving shooting of a Woodbine woman and her three children spurred the Howard County school system to help students who might need counseling.
The crisis teams were made up of school guidance counselors, psychologists and nurses who went into classrooms Monday to offer support at the schools the slain children attended, schools spokeswoman Patti Caplan said.
The oldest child, David, 12, was a seventh-grader at Glenwood Middle School. Megan, 10, was a fifth-grader, and Brandon, 6, was a second-grader, both at Lisbon Elementary School.
The grief experts focused their attention on the students who attended class with the children. The two schools also sent a letter home to parents.
“It is very difficult for all of us to comprehend the death of a family in our community. … What makes this even more difficult is the violent nature of this incident,” Glenwood Principal Rick Wilson wrote in a letter that also went to Lisbon parents.
Montgomery police said David Peter Brockdorff, 40, of Frederick, shot and killed the children and his ex-wife, Gail Louise Pumphrey, 43, at Unity Park near Laytonsville before fatally shooting himself.
