Superintendent Letter: Another School Tragedy

Dear Parents/Guardians,
 
With great sadness I send yet another note in response to a school shooting tragedy in the United States. At this point, 17 children are dead as a result of yesterday’s incident in Florida. I could go on with other related statistics, but I worry that would only serve to dull the point. As I noted to the staff this morning, it is all too easy to be numbed to/hardened by yet another tragedy and perhaps even worse, to be naïve enough to think that it couldn’t happen here. We simply cannot allow any of these reactions to be true.
 
So what are we doing to prevent such a tragedy in Skaneateles?
 
This morning I asked all of our staff to take the additional time to make one more connection with a student to ensure that they felt welcome and safe on our buses and in our schools. While this may seem simple compared to the larger scheme of building security, there are troves of research that tell us children who do not feel connected to their school, and who do not have meaningful relationships with the caring adults in our buildings, on our fields, and on our buses are at much higher risk for the behaviors that are linked to school tragedies. To this end, we are grateful to the community and the Board of Education for supporting our design of having a mental health professional in each of our buildings, while also having the services of school social workers and psychologists to address the growing needs of our children.
 
On the January 26 Conference day, we reviewed with our staff our various security measures and protocols with the assistance of our local health and safety officer from BOCES. Training ourselves to react quickly, efficiently, and in line with our protocols is critical in such events.
Accordingly, we will continue to practice our lockdown drills, some of which will be in coordination with law-enforcement and first responders.
 
Finally, we continue to enhance our building security through staffing arrangements and training, installing technical solutions to door entry systems, and enhancing our camera surveillance systems to have a better sense of the daily goings-on with in our buildings and on our school grounds.
 
So what can you do?
 
Very much in line with what we sent to you earlier this week (see attached) regarding critical areas of partnership with you, we are asking each of you to have open conversations with your children about their worries, anxieties, etc. related to their sense of safety, security, and overall wellness in our schools is very important. Similarly, encouraging your children to express concerns that they might have about friends, classmates, and schoolmates will also be helpful. In hearing this information, and when your parental instincts tell you that there may be something wrong, it is important for you all to know that there is no such thing as an overreaction in reporting concerns to us. We are very proud of our students for reporting a number of concerns, incidents, and social media postings to us over the past few years that that have helped us immediately address some behavioral issues that are disruptive to our safety and security. Please continue to encourage your children to do so.
Please continue to communicate with us on your concerns, ideas, and suggestions on how we can collectively ensure the safety, security, and wellness of each of our students.
 
In the meantime, give each of your kids an extra hug today.
My continued thanks to you all.
 
Ken Slentz, Superintendent of Schools

*** Parents – discussing a school tragedy like the one experienced in Florida yesterday is a very difficult thing to do with your children. To assist you with this, please do not hesitate to call on us and please see the information below from the National Association of School Psychologists. Our thanks to a Skaneateles parent for sharing this information with us.

   

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