The Link Between “Community Preservation” and School Safety
What does “community preservation” mean to you? When Residents for Community Preservation was founded, I could have not imagined all the ways this little phrase would come to mean so many things. Our initial goals included preserving our rural, natural environment after the threat of an asphalt plant came to town. Civic engagement & advocacy became an apparent need in order to protect what we held dear. As time moved forward, we embarked upon our first community-based project, Saving our Historical Town House. Again, the need for preservation, this time our community’s history, took on an ever-growing scope.
Last week, a school shooting at Oxford High School, less than 20 miles from our community, has rocked every parent’s security. The ripple effect of copycats and over 100 school closings has hit all of us hard. It’s pushed me to think deeply about many things, one being this notion of “community preservation” and advocacy. RCP remains nonpartisan, but also encourages civic engagement for the purpose of preserving our community. Having safe schools for our children to attend, is that not worth “preserving”? In fact, it is essential. There are few things more important to me as a parent of 4 than the safety and well-being of our children.
I’ve walked a range of emotions over the course of the past week from fear, sorrow, anger, and disbelief, only to land where I usually do on issues that matter to me… a place of inquiry and reflection that lead to meaningful actions. I’ve worked in public and private education settings for 20 years. I know schools have policies and procedures in place for when threats occur. They are practiced, rehearsed, engrained, and in this case probably did save lives. What I can’t seem to get past is how the red flags in Oxford were missed and I think the answer lies in a grey area where intentional preventative action steps are missing.
If a school has a student they are concerned about, how can action steps be put into place that ensure that child gets the help they need? When teachers, parents, or peers report concerns, what are the appropriate next steps? No longer can these decisions be left to the judgement of individual administrators or even individual parents. This isn’t something a school, and sometimes not even a parent can solve alone. It requires a networked community with defined, actionable steps of support and follow up. It’s easy to say the school should have not let this student go back to class after what was reported, and I don’t disagree. However, then what? What action steps could have or should have happened next? Psychiatric evaluation and potentially intervention? A home study and safety check by law enforcement? What role do parents play and what oversight would be needed? What would demonstrate enough intervention to be able to return to school safely?
There were many indicators that this situation could have been prevented, but how and by whom? The grey area of preventative measures within a networked community is what is missing. I have more questions than answers, but I do believe this is an area that needs careful thought, scrutiny, and planning. We can’t continue this pattern of thoughts and prayers, finger pointing, and political infighting. It’s not productive and lives continue to needlessly be lost. There’s no singular entity that can solve this alone. Not schools, not legislation, not parents. We must find a way to work together at all levels. This brings me to wonder, What can I do to make a difference?
I’m a parent of 4 kids. I’m a teacher. I’m not an administrator, politician, or law enforcement officer. What can I do? What action steps can I take? Every parent who is concerned about school safety should ask, demand if necessary, that school administrators establish a school safety task force comprised of parent representatives, law enforcement, school officials, and mental health experts to analyze your district’s current school safety policies and procedures. Take a good hard look at data, research, and FIND THE GAPS. Think about a networked community and how entities can focus on prevention. How can we put our heads together to think outside the box and support children who are at risk with actionable steps? How can we identify them and help BEFORE we are in crisis and lives are lost? Imagine if every school district in our state and in our country started having these conversations regularly and somehow had a way to share progress? What a difference that could make.
I’ll be asking this of my district. I won’t stop asking this of my district until it happens. I’m also asking you to do the same of yours and get to work on this from the ground up. This is how change is made. This is how things get better. Find your voice, get to know your school leaders and policies, and work toward solutions. Our kids deserve safe schools, they deserve to go to school without fearing for their lives. It’s incumbent upon us as parents, as neighbors, as educators, as citizens to figure this out.
Reach out to your school leaders this week. Follow up until you get answers. Find other parents that will do the same and respectfully engage. Let the fear, pain, and stress of last week’s events propel us forward toward progress instead of forgetting and moving on, idly awaiting the next school crisis. School safety is preservation of our community in possibly its rawest form. It’s a local issue for every.single.one of us.
Join me in making a difference in your community, in your schools.
#Oxfordstrong