Today there was a tragic school shooting in
Connecticut. Words cannot convey the
deep sorrow that all parents are feeling as we think about the families of the
victims. I want to make you aware of
Penn-Trafford’s actions in our schools as a result of this tragedy. Thanks to
Chief Otto from the Penn Township Police Department and Captain Carmen Disso from
Trafford Borough Police there was a police officer in or around all of the
schools for the last few hours of the day. I personally visited four
schools this afternoon and talked to the principals in every school.
Everything was calm in the schools and dismissal went smoothly. I want to
thank our police force in Penn Township and Trafford Borough for making their
presence known in our buildings at the end of the day.
Finally, tonight is a night where we should take our kids or grand-kids and give them a big ol’ hug. If your kids are grown up and out
of the house find a random elementary student and do the same. Our
children in our society need all of the love they can get. I hope the
narrative surrounding education (and education reform) will shift to reflect
the most important resource that we have…our children. While children are in
our care, we must help them grow and blossom into wonderful adults. This
can only be accomplished through love, compassion and lots of hard work by all
of us in our communities. Our society cannot forget that children are
vulnerable and need adults to be caring and responsible as we guide them on the
path to adulthood. Schools cannot do this on our own; parents cannot do this on
their own; we must all work together in a spirit of love and compassion toward
helping our children. Today we are reminded how fragile our life and
society can be. Moving forward we must remember that there is nothing
more important than the health and welfare of our children. Let’s all
work together to protect and care for our children.
"When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, 'Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.' To
ReplyDeletethis day, especially in times of 'disaster,' I remember my mother’s words, and I am always comforted by realizing that there are still so many helpers - so many caring people in this world." -- Mister Rogers
We need to take comfort in these words.
So many caring people are a part of the Penn Trafford School District.Please remind your children that we are here for them.
I appreciate the immediate action and concern of the schools. It will be hard to walk away from that bus stop tomorrow morning, knowing that 20 parents did the same thing on Friday and never saw their children again.
ReplyDeleteIn recent years, there have been stricter access rules enforced at all the schools. While having barriers is quite necessary, I think another step should be the contingency plan of what happens if there is a crisis within the school. What happened on Friday was unfathomable before then but I believe that preparing for the worst and running drills for a lockdown situation are paramount.
I believe PT has lockdown procedures but I would also like to know they are practiced regularly, including with the children. I agree with many reports that the actions of the teachers, administration and staff limited the disaster at Sandy Hook. Despite the tragic outcome, their actions prevented more tragedy.
Thank you very much for your continued diligence to PT.
Thank you for doiing your best to protect my children and all of the children in our district. It makes it a little easier to send them to school in the morning. A little.
ReplyDeleteNichole Williams
I'm looking for alternative to public schools to avoid this madness. Anyone have experience or recommendations. What I have so far is shady side academy, cyber school, or home schooling. Jennifer
ReplyDeleteI attended Pittsburgh Central Catholic HS in Oakland. Very good school, with a great academic reputation. I don't know what the tuition at CCHS is now ( when I student there in the early 90's the tuition was over $2,000 a year).
DeleteThis is a link to charter schools in southwestern PA:
Deletehttp://pacharters.org/pcpcs-schools/southwest/
This PA Department of Education site has a list of cyber schools.
http://www.portal.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt/community/charter_schools/7356/charter_schools_in_pennsylvania/508152
Why would you leave a great public school such at PT? The district is among the highest performing school in the state. I don't believe this is a reason to run away from our district.
DeleteWhat's to say that this couldn't happen to a private or proachial school? A public school is not inherently unsafe, and would be a misguided belief to say otherwise.
ReplyDeleteA student in a private school, in general, is about half as likely to the subject of a violent act as one in a public school. A teacher in a private school is also about half as likely. That data from the US Statistics data base on crime. But that data covers all schools, including inner city. Private school have more rigorous entrance standards than public school, and many argue private schools have more attentive teachers and staff, but PT teachers and staff are hard to beat in those categories. Statistically speaking the probability of any violent act in any public school, especially PT, is very-very low. I don't feel, in the Pittsburgh area, your chances are reduced significantly in private versus public. Shady Side Academy is a very top notch school, with low violence risk, but costly. Cyber and home schooling are obviously less risky environments but that's an educational environment choice that would need some thinking. Its not just violence in schools, but thing like bullying and teaching quality that you should consider as well. Every student I know that graduated from PT who continued their education did superior in college, dean's list, summa cum laude, and so on.
ReplyDeletePittsburgh Central Catholic: Tuition for the 2012-2013 school year is $9,250 for students who are members of a Catholic parish. Tuition for students who are not members of a Catholic parish is $9,550. Tuition may be paid in ten monthly payments beginning in July.
ReplyDeleteYes, the shooting was a tragedy, and those children did not deserve to die nor those families deserve to suffer. However, it is far too publicized by the media for ratings and views that the populace actually think that deaths of children are a rare occurrence.
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