As most of you know, there was a bomb threat at Belmont Secondary last week which closed the school down for the second half of wednesday and all of thursday. I have been thinking about this lately and relating it to safety of a classroom. Most of us know that in order to create learning we must create an environment of safety. So I relate this to my practicum experience and the opportunities I'll have over the 4 months at Belmont to create this environment for students. I am particularly interested in, and the reason i'm writing this post, seeing the environment at Belmont. I'm especially interested to see if there is a change at all in the students feelings of safety within the school so shortly after their bomb threats last week, and how it might change (if at all) over the next few months. I wonder if these threats would even impact the students after a few weeks or if it would have affected the way the students are treated by staff and eachother, as well as the way they interact. I can't imagine that a bomb threat would create an environment that promotes safety, but I can't help but wonder how safe the kids were feeling before any threat was found.
What's even more frightening is the idea that students aren't phased by this, and that something like a bomb threat is percieved as a joke. Maybe this threat is just looked at as an opportunity for a day off. That, to me, makes me think that people within the school are not valued and concerned with their environment (which may be due to the run down structure of the school).
I am anticipating this observation period for more than one reason, I just was thinking about it today and wondering what the overall environment will be within the school, and within each individual classroom.
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Today I attended the staff meeting at Reynolds (where there were two bomb threats last week as well) and this exact topic was discussed. At Reynolds school spirit seems to be a very big thing, everyone has so much pride in the school and despite the fact that there are 1100 students there are some very tight knit communities within that population, one would typically expect something like this to harm that significantly. However, on the day after these threats the Cops for Cancer head shaving occurred and it seems to have done wonders for pulling everyone back together and getting their minds off of the previous events (despite the fact that a large number of police officers were attending to ensure that no other threats etc. occurred).
ReplyDeleteA district specialist on traumatic situations was at this meeting today and discussed with us the importance of debriefing with the students after an event like this occurs to ensure that a positive environment is created again. She said these debriefs should provide an opportunity for students to release their stresses and emotions. She gave us a specific format to follow for these discussions as well.
I think the students and staff were all significantly phased by this but at the same time they are acknowledging the changes that need to occur and sharing their emotions, these two things are allowing them to move on.