Community mourns the loss of Jefferson Elementary School principal

Jason Winward, the Jefferson Elementary School Principle, died on Monday.

Now the community, family members and students are mourning his loss.

Cali Baker, a school counselor at Highland High School in Pocatello said elementary school students process death in a variety of ways.

“Little elementary school kids, they take death in all different manners, you have some kids that understand it and have kids that have never had to deal with a loss before,” Baker commented.

The Pocatello/Chubbuck School District released this statement on Wednesday in response to Winward’s death.

“It is with great sadness that we learned of the passing of Jason Winward, Jefferson Elementary Principal, yesterday. We are focused on helping the many students and staff who knew Jason, deal with their grief. Extra counselors are on staff at Jefferson today. The entire school district community is grieving and we ask for respect and privacy during this difficult time.”

Baker said students express grief in a variety of ways.

“They can act out aggressively, or they can just start crying for seemingly no reason. Or you could be helping them with their homework and they could burst into tears and it just seemed to come out of left field,” said Baker.

In the event of a tragic situation, like this one, parents should pay close attention to how their child is behaving and processing the event. Baker encourages students to reach out to the school district so they can work together to support their child during this hard time.

“Saying as a parent to the school, my student is really being impacted by this, what kind of things can you have in place because their could be something from a list being kept of students that need to be checked on to potentially even have grief groups,” said Baker.

A memorial fund has been set up for Winward’s family, to learn more, click here.