School counselors face extra challenges during pandemic

By Ashley J. Pegues
Baltimore Watchdog Staff Writer

On a cold Wednesday night, Joyce Wilbon-Brown was on her way to the grocery store when she suddenly got a call from one of her administrators. It was news that a counselor never wants to hear: a student had taken their life during one of the most challenging years Wilbon-Brown can remember in her 23 years as a school counselor.

“This has been one of the most difficult seasons,” she said.

She has never experienced this amount of death, suicide attempts, and suicides, she said. She and fellow Prince George’s County professional school counselors Ronnie Geter, and PhiXavier Holmes say it is difficult to assist the student’s needs during the pandemic.

Though it is easy to blame ourselves for someone else’s actions, “you can’t control what goes on in someone’s head,” Wilbon-Brown said. “But if you can get to them, allow them to know that ‘I’m here for you, you can talk to me, we can work through this,’ that gives someone hope.”

But the transition to online communication hasn’t been easy, she said.  As a professional school counselor at Duval High School, she has to make sure that she is available for the staff, students, and parents at all times—especially when difficult news comes.

Wilbon-Brown recalled a past holiday break when she received the news that one of the teachers at Duval High School had passed away. Throughout that day, from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m., she stayed on Zoom, condoling the staff, students and parents.

“The students took it very hard,” she said. “It’s been very hard physically, psychologically, spiritually, and emotionally.”

Ronnie Geter, a professional school counselor at Surrattsville High School, has also struggled to provide support to his school community.

He describes it as the “octopus syndrome,” in which “you’re socially and emotionally supporting everybody, which can be a situation in which it leaves you empty,” he said.

Geter often logs in at 7 a.m. and doesn’t log out until 8 p.m., he said.

“This is not a sense of normalcy for me,” he said. “I feel like I’m having Zoom fatigue a lot.”

It’s the same for PhiXavier Holmes, the chair of the Professional Counseling Department at William Wirt Middle School.

“Prior to the pandemic,” Holmes said, “it was challenging, but this has made it more challenging.”

She struggles to connect and encourage students to do well academically, physically and mentally, she said.

“Getting kids to be engaged, motivated, and shifting their mindset is the greatest challenge,” she said. “Students have shifted their mindsets about technology, about being social, and about what’s important to them.”

Before the pandemic started, school was an opportunity for students to be social, Holmes said.

“Think about it: you go to school because you get to see your friends, you get to eat lunch, you are in class and get to learn,” she said. “But school really is you learning the social cues, is you learning how to communicate and respect the boundaries that come along with society.”

Now that everything is virtual, there’s no interpersonal connection, Holmes said.

“You can’t read somebody’s face, body language, and facial expressions as well as you could if you were in person,” Holmes said.

Learning new technology, apps, portals and platforms has also been a struggle, Geter said

“Being unable to get the proper professional development that was needed to go along with being able to reach the students in the way that it was needed was a big hurdle to overcome,” he said.

Though this year has been difficult, Joyce Wilbon-Brown stays positives for her students.

“You can make it,” she tells them. “You’re not the only person that is experiencing it. We are here to help you. We will help you. We will support you. We will provide you with some services.”