If you read this column either occasionally or regularly you know that I like to write about days gone by, bicycling, my kids and grandkids, soccer, happenings at school and spiritual recollections. I try to keep my words light, apolitical and humorous.
Today, I have been asked to consider safety at Our Lady of Peace school which is not light or humorous. It will, however, remain apolitical. I have my opinions of course, but like the old bartender I am, I keep them to myself.
One of the most ill-timed columns I ever wrote was back in 2012 at a different school. It was December and as the students were getting excited about the coming of Santa Claus, I wrote satirically about him being turned away at the school door because he was a stranger and had not had his fingerprints or Protecting God’s Children completed. Unfortunately, that very week was the terrible tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School. I felt devastated.
In no way do I make light of our children’s safety as your school principal. There is no doubt that the vulnerability of students at schools has increased dramatically over the last 20 years.
What then do we have in place at Our Lady of Peace? In school we are always on a Level one lockdown, meaning that our doors are always locked. We have increased the number of cameras inside the school and out so that we are well covered visually both live and with the ability to view past events. Our entire staff now wears lanyards with our pictures on them. First time visitors must now present their driver’s license to enter the building, and they are given visitor stickers to wear. That information is stored so that they can be readily identifiable the second time.
As is protocol all staff and volunteers have the Protecting Gods’ Children Class and are fingerprinted.
We regularly do the drills mandated by the state: fire, tornado, lockdown, reverse evacuation, shelter-in place. We are adding training and protocols for recess and school Masses and doing additional training for staff to cover any emergency that arises. We have instant communication with each other through our phones and ready access in each room for dialing 911. My goal is to eventually have a camera in every classroom, not to spy on teachers but for their and their students’ protection.
With regards to what we tell our students about tragedies such as what happened in Minneapolis, we do discuss them. If a student brings it up, we do not dismiss his query, but we do not dwell on it. For instance, we prayed the rosary last week in response to the Bishops of the United States asking us to be united in prayer with Annunciation School, but we prayed for peace. We believe in the power of prayer, and we encourage our students to pray for all those who suffer in our school, our community and our world.
While school tragedies have increased, media attention of them has also made our world seem particularly dangerous these days. We work hard at Our Lady of Peace not to let our students live their life in fear, but to trust in our teachers, our staff, and our parents to make decisions for us that keep us safe.
The most important thing that you can do to assist us here at school in keeping your children safe in any kind of emergency is to emphasize to them that the trusted adults here at Our Lady of Peace will strive to take care of them. Please remind them that it is essential that when a teacher or staff member tells them to do something, unless it is illegal or immoral, they need to obey without hesitation. If they get in the habit of responding positively to small trivial directions: stand, move quietly in the hallway, clean up after yourself in the cafeteria, in the event of a more serious issue, they will know to listen and follow directions.
What has been clear in school tragedies is that adults have made split second decisions that have saved lives. Our expectation for the staff here is that they need to be ready to act quickly to follow drill protocols but also to have the mature sense to deviate from that procedure if the need arises.
Despite all, I remain optimistic that there are far more good people in the world than bad, and that just as we look out for our children and students, God looks out for us. Let us pray daily for the conversion of people with evil intent so that they God’s love will change their hearts. It does happen!
Jim Silcott