The staff at Clay Elementary met in the library this morning in response to the tragedy that happened on Friday, Dec. 14 in Newtown, Connecticut. The purpose of our meeting was to unite as a staff and believe there is HOPE. Personally, I didn't have any answers for them today in response to "additional security procedures". We will be reviewing all procedures tomorrow morning at the District Principal's Meeting. The agenda is packed with teaching and learning, but I have a feeling it will get scratched to discuss security issues at each building.
As a united staff, we will be resilient and remember that we have a job to do today, a job that anyone of those teachers in CT wish they were doing today...TEACH. We will make each student feel safe and continue with our lessons as planned. We have a Code YELLOW drill that we have practiced once this semester and will practice again next semester.
I visited with Officer Handy over the weekend and he reiterated, "Go on as usual". Last year he helped coordinate a tactile team walk-through of the building to make recommendations about safety of students and staff if a gunman entered the building. We complied with all their recommendations, one of which was locking the north doors (Kids Klub doors) during school hours. Officer Handy is also in communication with the district to do future trainings on school shootings.
We will go on today as normal as possible. If students talk about it or ask questions, we will communicate as much as possible so not to upset other students. As a teacher, you can sense when to "wrap up" discussions and when to prompt, ask, or seek more questions/comments. If students need additional support, they will be referred to Mr. Boggess, our school guidance counselor. We don't know what students know and we don't know how students will react. Our hope is that parents visited with their children about the tragedy over the weekend.
We are grateful that 445 preschool-5th grade students walked through our doors this morning, except for those who are out sick. We will love them, protect them, and teach them. Take care.
