Good Sunday Morning to you All!
Reflections of the week!
As you may imagine, last week was a difficult week for many in the Portland Schools. The aftermath of the Parkland school shooting, the incident at Middlesex Hospital involving Maritza’s son Stephen, the update about Ellen Kelley’s health,……and then we experienced the death (cancer) of a 34 year old parent of two students here in our district.
I am writing this while sitting in my office in a very quiet Town Hall. (I see Tom’s car is here so he must be working on the budget….Funny, but neither one of us has moved from the quiet of our own office.)
The latest I have heard about Mariza’s son is that he remains in very critical condition with 90-95% of his body burned.
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I anticipate a presentation to the BOE will be forthcoming.
· Middle School teachers received training on the use of running records this past week from several of our elementary-trained reading specialists. This training was offered as part of our transition to Reading Workshop in grade 7 & 8. We believe that this training will help teachers better determine students’ reading levels so that more appropriate differentiated content reading is selected for our
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We spent some time thinking through (preparing) for our response to students who may wish to participate in some sort of meaningful way to demonstrate their support for the families who lost loved ones in the recent school shooting. We recognize how delicate this topic is and want to guide (not direct) their planning efforts. We all want to support our students (and we are talking mainly our PHS students) who wish to have a voice in this national discussion about school safety. There have been a few students who have met with the administration to express their desire to plan an event for March. We believe that the Student Senate is their vehicle for planning an event that focuses on safe and appropriate civil
Often times in news reporting, data initially gathered can be found to be misleading or inaccurate due to the lack of the reporter's knowledge. This held true in the event of the school shooting that took place on the campus of Columbine high school in Littleton, Colorado on April 20th, 1999 in behalf of the frantic chaos. Dave Cullen gathers a wide variety of data on the myths, killers, and victims regarding the school shooting in order to construct a very precise report. Taking ten years to construct the story of Columbine was far from complicated when it came to figuring it out.
“In fewer than 11 minutes, twenty first-grade pupils and six adults had lost their lives” (Sanchez 1). On December 14, 2012 the lives of families across the nation changed forever. Adam Lanza, a twenty year old man suffering with multiple mental illnesses, went on a shooting rampage at the Sandy Hook Elementary School after murdering his mother just minutes before. He had no motive for his unbelievable actions, but took the lives of children who had so many more years to live and memories to make. The Sandy Hook shooting was the second most deadly shooting in the United States, as it scarred innocent people, and still has families across the nation wondering why this horrific event happened.
It was a typical Friday morning—and let’s not kid ourselves, most teachers enjoy Fridays. But this day would be different for first-grade teacher Vicki Soto. When a gunman entered Sandy Hook Elementary, killing twenty-six people, Vicki threw herself in front of her students, while many of her other pupils had already been hidden in a nearby bathroom. And while we mourn the deaths of those women and children who perished, we can see true heroism in what Vicki Soto and others showed on that tragic day.
When over the loudspeaker she had heard “ Here’s a bulletin from CBS News. President Kennedy has been a victim of an assassin’s bullets in Dallas, Texas. It is not known as of yet if the president survived the attack against him. . . “ (JFK Coverage). She instantly became sick, her stomach tied in knots, her chest began to ache like someone had been crushing her upper ribs, she couldn’t bear to listen anymore.
On December 14, 2012 is the day that the citizens of Newtown, Connecticut experience sorrow And the wrong type of fame. On Dec. 24, 2012 a man named Adam Lanza took the life of his own mother by shooting her in the head and then traveled to a nearby school called “sandy Hook Elementary” and releasing hell on 20 unfortunate children between the age of 5-10 and 6 adults that gave up their lives to protect the young ones. This devastating day had a big impact on all of society, not just the citizens that live in Newtown but in other states and countries. Adam was a young man that terrified kids to go to school, also had an effect on parents accepting they lost of family and friends, and finally the law to have a firearm changed after the board
School shootings directly impact survivors, as they have an “increased incidence of a range of negative mental health outcomes, among them post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and major depression” (Lowe and Galea 1). The connection between school shooting survivors and increased rates of mental health disorders reveals the long-lasting consequences of school shootings on innocent children, teachers, and other faculty. These disorders can contribute to a decrease in the quality of life of the survivors, a decrease in their lifespans, and an increase in unemployment as survivors may undergo little to no motivation or an inability to function without flashbacks that leave them paralyzed. Without help, the victims remain trapped in their disorders, which prevents them from living full lives. An example of negative mental health consequences is apparent in ten-year-old Catilyne Gonzales, a survivor of the Uvalde shooting, who experiences mental health decline after hearing a shooter murder her best friends across the hall.
As more and more information came up after the shooting, it hit the hearts of many people in the United States. Parents struggled to send their kids to school, which before was a positive place where students could learn with their friends. Teachers worried for their lives but even more for the lives of their students when they arrived at school every morning. Furthermore, children and teenagers were instilled with fear of schools. The feeling that parents, children, teachers, and most everyone during this time felt can best be described as terror.
For countless families, this violence instilled immense fear in their hearts. Fear took over the lives of many people, but I decided that this situation would not stop me from living a normal life. When people asked me why I was still living in such a deadly city, I would simply respond that I loved my hometown. The city was going through a tough period, but it was up to its people to keep the city alive. We had to work as a community to rebuild what had been lost through violence.
The morning of December 14, 2012 would not be a typical one of the inhabitants of Newtown, a small tight-knit town in Fairfield County, Connecticut. At approximately 9:30 AM, shortly after the beginning of the school day, Adam Lanza, a deranged, violent man, armed with a rifle, two hand guns, a shotgun, and a plethora of extra ammunition, forcefully entered Sandy Hook Elementary School and commenced a shooting rampage that would eventually take the lives of twenty innocent first graders, along with six faculty members who heroically sacrificed their lives protecting their students. This heart wrenching tragedy sent a Shockwave throughout America, as people were struggling to determine what they could do to prevent something so horrific from
A teacher’s son, clad in black and carrying two 9mm pistols rampaged through a Connecticut elementary school, killing 20 small children and six adults, a tragedy President Obama said had “broken the hearts of America” (Williams).” Many people believe that the Sandy Hook Elementary School massacre was planned because of the odd demeanor of the parents or victim, Emilie Parker, the medical personnel who were turned away from the scene, why care flight helicopters were never requested, and questions concerning the validity of the medical examiner. This tragic event was not at all planned because all of these questions can be reasonably answered. One of the reasons people question the tragedy of the Sandy Hook massacre is because of the strange
Sandy Hook Elementary school was one of the deadliest school shootings in United States history. A twenty year old man named Adam Lanza, killed twenty eight people, including himself (Ray). The police found many articles and books about mass killings at his home (Editors). Today, there are many memorials, including websites and fundraisers to remember everyone that died in this tragic event (My Sandy Hook
The students from Douglas High aren't alone and are being supported by many other students. “Your hands. Our blood.”, students were shouting when they were protesting. Everyone is facing the dilemma with gun violence in the U.S. and is becoming bigger and bigger throughout
These harrowing tales (from ceasefirepa.org) are just a fraction of what we’re dealing with. Imagine, in Pennsylvania alone, countless others with similar experiences, tormented by inconsolable grief. I once relayed to an American expatriate several heartbreaking shooting incidents involving children who had inadvertently or intentionally killed themselves, their playmates, and their family members. I noted that such is the daily reality in America. (Sadly, this is true.)
This world has been and continues to be scarred with constant, horrific, deadly, and painful events that affect hundreds of families. The unexpected mass shootings, school gun-downs, ramming of crowds, the bombing of a populated area, and dozens more, are now expected to appear in our news feed, but serious changes to prevent these disasters rarely occur. But the question is, how many more children have to die? How many more families need to be destroyed? How many more innocent
In A Letter Home, 1,000 Ohio National Guardsmen are pointing innocent college students at gunpoint, and this is the outbreak. “By now you know the end of it all from the news. Four Kent State students died, and nine students were wounded” (6). These are two of the many similarities found in this story, but there are also many differences as