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On Sept. 11, 2001, two of the world’s largest buildings came crashing to the ground. Debris fell from the sky, covering entire blocks of New York City – and some elementary schools.

That day, 8,500 students were evacuated from schools near the World Trade Center. But for many of those students, the problems did not end after being ushered to safety or even when their schools reopened. Many began to show signs of anxiety; some had nightmares; still more began to fear tall buildings or loud noises.

To one degree or another, these students were suffering from traumatic stress disorder, which can lead to increased anxiety, poor sleeping patters and violent behavior. Now, researchers at UCLA and Duke University continue their efforts to help children like those affected in New York on Sept. 11, 2001.

Near the two-year anniversary of the attacks, the National Child Traumatic Stress Network, administered by researchers at UCLA and Duke, released checklists and guides for schools and parents designed to help them care for children before, during and after disasters occur.

Though their work seems particularly important post Sept. 11, 2001, it began with a grant awarded before the attacks.

“Congress had begun to appreciate the extent and severity of the impact of traumatic events on children and their families,” said Alan Steinberg, a UCLA researcher who is the associate director for NCTSN.

The network was started to address the problem of traumatic stress in children and improve the quality of care from those suffering from it, Steinberg said.

The tools developed by NCTSN aim to educate parents and teachers about what sorts of incidents can lead to traumatic stress, what signs a child might display if he or she is afflicted with stress, and what types of “intervention strategies” can help a child through that stress. They also outline how teachers and parents can handle their own stress following traumatic events in order to best help others.

Doctors and educators point out that though Sept. 11 brought new light to the problem of traumatic stress among children, problems do develop from sources totally unrelated to terrorism or wide-scale disaster.

“The Sept. 11 attacks on America shocked the nation into a deep awareness of what it means to live with uncertainty and danger,” said Duke’s John Fairbank, co-director of NCTSN in a statement. “As horrible as the attacks were, it is equally tragic that many children face traumatic events every day in America.”

Children can develop traumatic stress from a serious injury or illness, or after violent incidents in the home or school.

But Sept. 11 did prove to be a unique challenge for those charged with helping children after such a scary event. And not only children in New York were affected.

Jeffrey Jacobs, the school psychologist at University Elementary School, said the school did not have major problems with traumatic stress after Sept. 11, but that some students did display increased anxiety. He remembered working with a girl who was troubled by the attacks. The day after he talked with her, she used Legos to “rebuild” the twin towers.

Jacobs said this represented her taking control of the situation. Afterward, her anxiety decreased markedly, he said.

With reports from Robert Salonga, Bruin Senior Staff. Visit www.nctsnet.org for more information.