Commentary; Posted: 10/8/03

Ensuring the safety of young people at schools is a priority at FLHS

Steve Massey
Guest Columnist

Our hearts and thoughts are with the students, parents, and high school staff at Rocori High School. The tragic events surrounding the student shooting at Rocori High School cause all of us to examine how well we connect with and care for students that attend our schools, live in our homes, and belong to our community. Caring for and ensuring the safety of the young people of our community is a school, community and family concern.

Forest Lake High School utilizes a number of means and resources that make the school a safe place to learn. The most powerful resource we have to reach students is a talented and committed instructional and support staff that work hard ever day to provide a challenging and dynamic learning experience for each student. On one of the hottest days this fall, I watched as a teacher engaged students in a classroom.

With sweat rolling off his forehead and drenching his shirt he taught with passion and energy. Every student in the classroom was on the edge of his/her proverbial seat asking questions and asserting answers. Passion leads to compassion. Every day I see teachers greet students, shake hands with students, give high fives, praise students, correct students, and put an arm around a student when he/she is down about something. Staff caring runs very deep at the Forest Lake High School.

A number of other factors are in place at the high school that are designed to promote student and staff safety. We have a crisis manual that will direct our actions in the event of an emergency. We have hall supervision and a police liaison officer throughout the school day. Each student belongs to an ìOptionsî class where students meet on a regular basis to discuss topics relevant to high school students. This provides a smaller place for students to connect with a caring adult who has taken an interest in his/her success at the high school.

Additionally, each student is assigned to one of six deans who is responsible for this studentís registration, transcript, school/personal concerns, and discipline issues. The dean is one more person in the school system a student can turn to if he/she is feeling alone, picked-on, hurt, or confused.

Everyday, students leave our high school for home and places within our community. Businesses, social service agencies, and recreational and social gathering places play tremendously important roles in making the world a safe place for our students. We appreciate our business and community partners that attend music concerts/performances, drama productions, co-curricular and athletic events. In so many ways, student performances are the best ìshowsî in town. Your support and encouragement build student personal, academic and social capacity.

Students spend most of their time at home with their families. The love and guidance you give your child is the foundation upon which he/she grows and becomes a young adult. Continue to demand the best and be there to offer support and comfort when he/she fails.

Encourage your child to be sensitive to the needs of others and to his/her peers who may be different from him/her. Help him/her continue to see beyond these differences and to see the uniqueness and beauty in others. By all means, if your child appears lonely, disconnected, or hurt, please contact your minister, a grandparent/aunt/uncle, your childís dean, or a caring friend.

In many ways, our schools are big and busy places. Yet, at the same time, our schools are small places in which our students excel and shine every day. School safety involves families, the community, and the schools working together. We must draw on each otherís strength and capacity to make our schools and communities safe places for students to grow, learn, and become caring and successful human beings.

The writer is principal at Forest Lake High School.

Top of Page