The Bathroom Wall

We managed to squeeze a lot of work and emotion into an otherwise very short school week. While starting the week on a teacher workday sounds relaxing to most, I had the cloud hanging over me of a threat written on a bathroom wall. I'm here to tell you that there is no specific training or plan for how to handle events like this one. All you can do is try to get as much knowledge on the event as you can and make the best decision that you can for the people that are under your care. Before I sent out my statement, I couldn't help but hang my head. I knew full and well that the critics would come out of everywhere. You have to have thick skin as a school administrator. There are parents and community members that don't always agree with you, teachers and students that sometimes see things in a different way, and news media that would love nothing more than to turn your misfortune into increased ratings. I knew that this would be tough and I woke up Tuesday morning at 2:45 am, with my mind full of questions and thoughts on the day.

With events that put schools in fear, you have no choice but to respond. But what happens after that day? I remembered back to my first year at Greene Central. My arrival at the school wasn't pleasant for everyone and we had a student that continued to express his distaste in me by writing it on a bathroom wall. "F*** Mr. Greene" was the common phrase and it was always in the same spot. The custodian asked me if I wanted him to shut down the bathroom to keep it from happening. My response then is my response now. "We don't tear down the school for a little bit of writing on a bathroom wall. We paint over it and move on."

While the "writing on the wall" this week won't make me fear students or redirect all students into policies based on fear, it did remind me that the most powerful thing about our school is the culture that we have developed among students, staff and our community. While I expected backlash about public schools being unsafe (and we got a little of that), what I saw much more were prayers for our safety and encouraging words from graduates. It reminded me that we found out about the writing because of relationships we had with students that cared enough to speak up. It reminded me to focus on continuing to invest in those relationships. I needed to get back to talking to kids more and to having fun with them as young people. And that's exactly what I tried to spend the rest of the week doing.

So while I wouldn't wish a threat of violence on any school or any student, I will say that my reflection on this week's event taught me to refocus my priorities. As administrators, it's easy to get caught up in data, policies, problems, and timelines. But absolutely no one remembers those things about their school experience. The reason that we open school every year, fully staffed with quality teachers and students ready to be back is because of how those groups feel about the place that they spend 8 or more hours each day. When you remember that schools are places with people and when you care about them as people, you can turn around a bad week pretty quickly.