Incident at CMS Continues to Prompt More Questions

If you have a child who attends CMS then you received a letter addressing the incident that occurred on Friday.  And, unless you live under a rock, by now you have seen this letter and heard the shockwaves by parents in this community. 

As adults, it’s not easy to speak up and even we struggle with making the right choices.  As children, the burden is even greater because judgement from peers is crucial to their social and emotional well being. 

I was and am still so proud there was/were a child/children (not sure of the details) that was brave enough to report another student having a weapon.  Can we please acknowledge how difficult this probably was for this/these children?

Unfortunately, the letter parents received resonated with two main points; 

1. We have a course of action but will not let you know what is happening.  I get this, but to a degree. Police business is police business and I understand and respect that greatly. But, the burning question is – will the child who possessed the weapon be in school tomorrow?
2. This letter also directly asserts blame for the incident not being reported earlier.  As if, in some delusional way, the district is placing blame on the students who didn’t say anything. 
3. I know I said 2, but is the districts plan to preach the NYC MTA “See Something Say Something” slogan?  This is the path forward?

This stuff is not easy as parents, and I don’t think it’s easy as Administrators.  But, I found this letter to be very defensive and assigning unwarranted blame on a child/group of children.

A message of unity and community would have been welcomed.  No one is perfect nor is any policy or procedure, but we grow and learn to be better from each conflict we endure. 

The FACT is that this COULD have been a different scenario and the FACT is that our kids are prepared for safety and security drills.  So, who is trained and at the discretion to make THOSE calls; the ones where we err on the side of caution?

Was this handled properly? I’m not sure.  What I do know is that there were a lot of students who were scared while they were at school.  There were kids who came home feeling scared about what transpired.  What I do know is none of these feelings were addressed. So, maybe that’s the conversation we need to have.  Not about MTA slogans.