During the COVID-19 pandemic, the State of Mexico experienced thousands of deaths in each of its municipalities, with Toluca being the second municipality with the highest number of deaths (14,387), followed by Metepec with 11,286, and Zinacantepec with 4,126 (Secretariat of Health).

The lack of resources to deal with grief is noticeable, especially in schools, where teachers, students, and administrative staff spend considerable time. Teachers returned to the classrooms to face difficult situations related to the losses their students experienced during the pandemic, and students found themselves returning to the classroom with more internal conflicts than when they left. The Ministry of Education implements actions in the socio-emotional field on topics such as addiction, violence, and behavioral disorders; however, actions regarding grief in the school context are not considered, as this topic is not integrated into the cross-cutting axes of educational models.

In 2021, the Ministry of Education, Science, Technology, and Innovation conducted a Needs Diagnosis in the Classroom regarding Thanatological Needs, with the aim of understanding the needs experienced by teachers and educational stakeholders upon returning from the pandemic after the losses experienced during isolation. Understanding thanatology as the scientific discipline that studies the process of death and gives meaning to losses. The results obtained show that there have been changes in student behavior related to low academic performance, manifestations of sadness and fear, behavioral changes such as irritability, isolation, and anxiety. The situation of teachers is not very different from that of students; the return to face-to-face teaching has been frustrating for them. The grief of teachers, of course, influences the teaching process; 34.3% affirm that their concentration and participation have been diminished, but also 24.1% have expressed irritation and recurrent absence due to mental incapacity to prepare or give their classes. Faced with this situation, 93.6% of teachers state that it is necessary to have tools to support students and integrate topics on grief culture into teacher training.

In response to these needs, the Ministry of Education has created a Thanatological Support Network to provide initial tools to teachers. However, in the implementation of actions, the primary need was identified to emotionally support those teachers who accompany grieving students, as teachers often lack pedagogical tools to support their students' emotional state due to experiencing a family loss themselves. Thus, giving rise to the initiative "Heal to Teach," which focuses primarily on the teacher, considering it necessary for the teacher to first have emotional tools in the classroom to support their own grieving processes in order to be in the best possible shape during their working days and thus be able to accompany their students. For this reason, it is intended to develop this initiative in this first stage at the upper secondary level in these municipalities where approximately 26,155 teachers work.

• Awareness-raising for teachers: Providing training actions on the expected manifestations of grieving teachers and their implications through conferences, workshops, panels, forums, and media communication.
• Academic training: Offering a diploma course titled "The Teacher," with a duration of approximately 50 hours, in which teachers will receive information about their role in the classroom with grieving students. Proposing a specialization in grief in the school context with a duration of one year and curriculum value.
• Intervention for teachers supporting grieving students: Group containment providing a space for teachers to listen, provide support, and receive psychoeducation.
• Emotional rescue for schools experiencing traumatic grief (suicide, homicide, kidnappings): Group intervention for processing an event known as debriefing for teachers, offering emergent support to teachers who have recently experienced grief in their schools due to traumatic events. Identifying risk behaviors in the student population through collaboration with other mental health departments of the Secretariat that conduct psychological diagnoses of violence in schools. Referring those teachers who require individual therapeutic support to emotional health specialists, strengthening our initiative through alliances that support this endeavor.

Direct Results:

• 12 awareness-raising actions for teachers promoting a culture of grief in the school context impacting annually 1000 teachers conducted.
• Two diploma courses for teachers, in which 100 teachers will be trained offered.
• 50 teachers with a specialization in grief in the educational context incorporated into the initiative.
• 200 teachers supported in the grieving process.
• 10 Schools in crisis due to the death of a community member attended to.

Expected Impact:

• At least 15% of the 155 teachers in Upper Secondary Level are trained in grief in the school context within a year of implementing the initiative, in which teachers will have technological tools for initial contact that they can apply in the classroom, achieving this goal from the twelfth month of the implementation of the "Heal to Teach" initiative.
• It is intended that from the twenty-third month, 40% of upper secondary level schools carry out initial contact thanatological actions in their educational spaces through the 35 schools experiencing grief.

• Civil Association International School of Thanatology Jalisco
  
• Specialists in thanatology
  

• M. Laura López Vázquez: Advisor to the Internal Linkage Directorate of the Linkage Coordination of the Secretariat of Education, Science, Technology, and Innovation (lautanato7@gmail.com).
• M. Aldanna Di Constanzo: Founder of the Aiken Foundation, Argentina (aldanadi81@gmail.com).

HEALING FROM THE CLASSROOM: A PIONEERING INITIATIVE TO SUPPORT GRIEVING STUDENTS