Yesterday a letter was included in the community newsletter on the activities planned for today, March 14, 2018. With the national and local hype surrounding student protests and walk-outs, we wanted to assure our community that we were working with our students on this very important issue. If you missed the original correspondence I have included it here.
https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mc_p5QBSnWix5S-3aKDcrG4CGJtaZtrDHEXbozeA50c/edit?usp=sharing
The purpose of this update is to let our community know how our school handled the event. As we stated in our first correspondence, the students took a major leadership role in the events. They approached administration and together we planned a peaceful activity in which to honor the victims of the shooting and one that gave our students the ability to have a voice and participate wihtout fear of punishment. Student also had the choice to participate or stay in their classrooms. Our student leaders produced a 20 minute presentation that was read over the loud speaker. They asked all students to exit their classrooms and sit peacefully in the hallway to show their respect to the victims. They read the names of the 17 victims and a brief biography of each one. The entire event was respectful and moving. Of course, we had a safe contingency plan in place in the event we did have students attempt to walk-out of the building. I am proud and honored to say our students participated fully in the event that their classmates planned and were respectful throughout.
As you may hear in the upcoming weeks, another similar event is beginning to form nationally for April 20th of this year; the anniversary of the Columbine shooting. We are currently planning with all of our student leadership groups for this event as well.
I hope you are as proud as I am of our students. It was great day to be a Patriot.
