Throwing Out a Line

New Jersey reaches out to its Gulf Coast colleagues.

Gulf Coast educators hit hard by recent hurricanes have a new resource to confront powerful emotions unleashed by the storms—a hotline of trained counselors, paid for by the New Jersey Education Association, the NEA Health Information Network, and the University of Medicine and Dentistry of New Jersey.

The hotline, first created in the wake of 9/11 for New Jersey’s members, will continue to be based there but will broaden its focus to include Southerners trying to rebuild their lives and careers.

“[We’re] already under the stress of living up to the standards of our accountability system and, for some, this storm is just too much,” says Carol Davis, president of the Louisiana Association of Educators. “We’re very grateful they seem to realize that we need more than school supplies.”

—A.J.M.