Safe Places

When I was a teenager I worked as a cashier at the Piggly Wiggly. Before you start laughing, this was THE job to have if you were a teenager in my hometown. All the cool kids, who had to have an afterschool job, worked at the Pig. Prior to my real job at the Pig, I worked for my Dad on the farm and trust me the pay at the Pig was 100 times better. My best friend worked with me. My boyfriend was a bag boy and the parking lot was always filled with teenagers, as the Pig was a local hangout. I loved my job. We always cashed our Friday paychecks at work and one day I had done just that stuffed my (now seemingly small) paycheck into my purse and went about my teenage life. I had probably spent $20 or so of the money by church on Sunday. My parents have always instilled in me to be a faithful tither so I again went into my purse and gave another $20 to my church during Sunday School.  Although I was a teenager, attending a small church meant that even at age 16, I was allowed to be in the church choir, so for the next hour or so I was in the choir. After choir I was hanging my robe when I heard frantic rumbling in the choir room. I soon discovered that during church, someone had come into our choir room and stolen out of all the purses of the female choir members. I ran to my purse and while I was expecting differently the remaining money from Friday’s paycheck was all gone.  I was devastated. Yet, what I remember feeling the most was that in my safest place-my church- I had been stripped of the feeling of safeness. Church was and always has been my safe place. After this incident the church started locking more doors and making it harder to get into the church.

Going to the movies is one of my secret hobbies. Since the Batman shooting in a movie theater a few years ago, I still remain a little anxious about going to the movies. I watch the folks walk in and look at the exit doors and honestly make a little plan in my head about what I’d do if something happened. This weekend I went to see the movie Sully. Tom Hanks portrayed US Airlines pilot Chesley Sullenburger brilliantly in this movie about the Miracle on the Hudson. While watching the movie, I was moved by the emotional display, without any script-only acting, of the landing and getting everyone off the plane and into boats. I watched Tom Hanks’s face and realized that that plane was his safe place. This wasn’t supposed to happen. But it did.  Last week, after our faculty meeting, I sat at my desk in shock and horror watching the live feed from Townville Elementary where two students and one teacher were shot in another school shooting. While church is and always will be my safe place, I have similar feelings while here at school.  I love our school. I look forward to car pool every morning and enjoying our Safety Squad and welcoming our kids to school. I love walking the hallways and looking at the displayed student’s work. I love being in your classrooms. Next to having one of the Rosebros telling me they love me, my favorite thing in the world is having a student read to me. I love hanging in the cafeteria during lunch. I had the best time riding my bike around the track during recess the other day. The last thing we expect is for all of those things to be interrupted by gunfire. School should be a safe place.

I feel strongly, that even with mistakes I make as a leader, I always try to make decisions that are best for our school, staff, students and community. The only time I ever “lose sleep” is thinking about the loss of JBE as a safe place. I do not nor will I ever take lightly the immense responsibility we have to ensure the safety and security of the students entrusted to us. As I was thinking about all of my safe places-I realized one thing holds true. These places-church, movie theater, our homes, our school-are still are safe places. They are safe because of the people we share them with and the experiences we have within the spaces. While in all of them we may do things differently to keep them just a little safer, they still are our Safe places. We make them safe not just in our physical actions of locking doors and gates, and ignoring the door and reducing adult traffic with in the school, we make it emotionally safe by creating relationships with our students and their families. It is through that sense of community and family that will keep us safe-even when the unthinkable happens.