Tribute to a Life Well Lived and Well Taught

March 9, 2012 by

I attended a memorial service yesterday for a relative who died after a long and hard fought battle against cancer. Ellen was just forty two when she left us. Those who spoke at the service related how Ellen was a happy, funny, fun loving, clean living kind of gal who brought joy to all who knew her. All of those descriptions paint a picture of who she was and how she lived her life. In the more than 300 pictures that played on the screen in the funeral home before the service, she had a beaming smile in almost all of them. But Ellen was also a superb educator. Her mom is a retired teacher from the same district who won numerous awards for her excellence in teaching. Her grandmother was also a distinguished career teacher as is her sister.

Ellen had gone back to school to earn two graduate degrees with one of them being a degree in special needs education. One of her long term colleagues spoke of how much of an amazing teacher she was to her kindergarten class of special needs children. She continued to teach half days even after the cancer was taking a serious toll on her and was devastated when she realized that she must stop teaching because her students deserved more than her failing health could allow her to give.

As I listened to the minister and her colleague speak of what a wonderful human being and gifted teacher she was, I knew from personal experience that everything they said was true. I also realized that Ellen is typical of so many atypical people in the field of education who have dedicated their lives to the service of others. All that is good and just in our society stems from people like Ellen. Though everyone’s job has purpose and makes a contribution to our society, there are those who walk gracefully and quietly among us to serve others. Thankfully, there are public safety officials, military personnel, mental health professionals and teachers who work wonders every day they serve. These people who have chosen noble callings like teaching make the world a better place for the rest of us.

As the packed service illustrated, Ellen was definitely one who lived her life well, with purpose and with tremendous impact on many.

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School Shooting at Episcopal High School in Jacksonville Reminds us that Violence can happen at Public, Private, Parochial, Charter and Independent Schools

March 7, 2012 by

March has been a busy month for school safety incidents.  The shock of the tragic school shooting in Chardon, Ohio has caused a larger number of school violence incidents to be reported in the media than is normally the case. As with other many other tragic high profile multiple victim school shootings, many incidents that do not ordinarily garner attention in the national news are making headlines.  The positive side of this increased media coverage is that it does help to remind students, parents and parents that school safety is an important topic and that we should all do our part to avert tragedies.  All the same, these incidents are a bitter pill for those that have to endure them.

One report that received national coverage today was a terrible murder suicide at Episcopal High School in Jacksonville, Florida.  Early reports indicate that a Spanish teacher returned to the school with a semi-automatic rifle concealed in a guitar case and shot the school’s headmistress fatally before taking his own life after he was terminated this morning.  Over the years there have been a number of homicides, sexual assaults, hostage situations, deadly fires and other major crisis events in non-public schools around the nation.  The deadly shooting at an Amish School in Pennsylvania is one of the more well-known examples. 

These tragic situations serve more than adequate notice that non – public schools must also consider all four phases of school crisis planning as relevant and important to their successful operation.  Though it is truly sad that any educators must contend with these types of hazards, it is a reality in education across the globe. 

Our hearts go out to the members of the Episcopal High School family in their time of difficulty.

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Recent Tornado Strikes Provide Clear Evidence that Schools Should Focus Appropriately on Tornado Preparedness

March 4, 2012 by

The deadly near miss in Indiana this week should provide a clear warning to all school and public safety officials. Tornadoes are deadly and no school in a region where they can occur should ignore them. As a number of states where tornadoes occur regularly still do not require tornado drills, there are still many schools without a written tornado sheltering procedure where no tornado sheltering drill has been conducted in years.

We have seen this many times in our school hazard and vulnerability assessment projects. In the last two years, we have had client districts in Pennsylvania, Illinois and Virginia that not only did not have written tornado sheltering procedures in place, but where some central office administrators also objected to the recommendations for tornado drills to be added. They felt that these types of drills would take up too much class time in relation to the likelihood that a tornado would hit an occupied school. Tornado strikes occurred near schools in all three regions within a year.

While most schools in tornado prone regions do have written plans and conduct tornado drills, we have seen more than one instance where a school district has conducted an active shooter full – scale exercise while tornadoes, hazardous materials incidents and earthquakes have been virtually ignored as a threat. We have seen many more instances where school officials were using gymnasiums or other open span areas for tornado shelters. We recommend that school administrators ask area public safety officials to visit their buildings and evaluate the shelter areas they are using.

The advanced planning and decisions by administrators in Henrysville, Indiana clearly saved many young lives this week. The results would not have been the same had they not taken tornadoes seriously.

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