KINDNESS
FAMS Mission for 2022-23
Today's News
Good Afternoon,
I know when middle school students go home after school, and you ask them what happened at school today, many days they say “nothing”. Because of this, I want to give you a bit more information about today’s start.
We had an eighth grade assembly first thing this morning, and then broke into groups for short discussions. We use these small groups to have meaningful conversations with students about a variety of topics and today's topic was related to kindness. All together, this took about an hour of our day, but we felt that it was very important to address the growing number of reports of students doing and saying hurtful things to others.
Every September, we hold class meetings where we talk about setting goals for the year. We started this year with a very deliberate message of being kind to one another. We made that mission for our school this year. Not to just talk about kindness, but to actually try and live out the golden rule of treating others the way you would want to be treated. Many of our students have taken this seriously and are doing just that, and it makes me very proud to see. Today we met to specifically address the growing number of reports of students who have not taken this goal of kindness seriously (as evidenced by mean and hurtful comments) that go beyond typical middle school student interactions.
There have been people spreading false rumors about others, making comments about people's clothing or how they look, making fun of people’s weight, or just making comments about people who may be different than they are. In addition to this happening, many of their friends, or the people around them, laugh when it happens which then encourages more of this inappropriate behavior.
Students were told that if their behaviors are mean, repetitive, and directed at other students in any type of hurtful or harmful manner that situation, in addition to having school consequences, may be referred to the police department. We wanted students to understand that this is real and that there are consequences for these actions. Captain Sachse of the Fort Atkinson Police Department was here this morning as well, and he spoke about things from his perspective as a law enforcement officer and outlined possible actions to help stress how seriously the school and police are taking the comments and behaviors of students. Our hope is that by providing some examples of consequences that students can reflect on their actions and hopefully, help change the climate of the student body.
We have a great group of students, and many of them have not taken part in the negative comments or rumors. I know that they do not want this to continue to happen at our school. We are asking for these students to speak up when they see things that are wrong. Say something directly to the person about how that was inappropriate or report it to an adult so it can be addressed.
I ask for your help as families. Please have conversations at home about your hopes and expectations related to how your child is treated by and treats others. Have a discussion about what it’s like to stand up for what you know is right and how to address situations that you know are wrong. Today was a positive start as students had the chance to share things they can do to help make our school a welcoming place. We will continue to work on building a positive and safe place for students to learn, mature and become responsible young adults. Let's work together to help make school a place where we take care of each other, a place where kindness is the norm, and a place where EVERY student looks forward to coming every day.
Thank you!