Seeing and showing Mercy

I hope everyone enjoyed the last hurrah of summer.  It is been oppressively hot and hard to believe fall is upon us.  We realize this makes it very uncomfortable at pick up to turn your car off but we ask again for everyone to follow the pick-up procedures.  For the safety of our students and others in the lot, please turn your car off until all students safely in their cars.

 

It has been a great second week of school!!!  Things are starting to settle down and everyone is getting used to the schedule and flow of the day.  We look forward to our Friday assemblies starting on a regular basis this week, please join us!

 

Last Thursday and Friday, our 8^th graders were on retreat at Fatima Retreat House, it was an inspiring 2 days. The theme of the retreat was Mercy.  In continuation of this theme, I have a couple of thoughts…

 

Next week we start our Car Question of the week.  On the morning announcements each day we remind the students of the question, so they can be on the lookout for ways to do things better or help others.  Then, each afternoon, we hope that all the parents will ask their child about the question of the week and have a discussion on the car ride home.  It is a great way to expand on the typical, “How was your day?”  “Fine.”conversations.

 

The question for our first Car Question of the week came from Deacon Wagner’s talk to 8^th grade parents and students at the retreat last week - Where, today, did I fall short with friends, teachers, or parents?  I know this may seem like a real downer-type question but the purpose is to remind all of us that we are not perfect, no one is.  We are all human beings and we make mistakes, especially when we are frustrated or tired.  It is okay that our children fall short now and then, it is inevitable.  It is through the short comings that we hope they learn to better handle these situations and we need show them mercy and guide them through making amends or rectifying the issue.  A great follow up to whatever the answer they give would be, “How are you going to make amends, or ask for forgiveness?”  Will asking for forgiveness, or saying you are sorry, be hard the first time?  Yes, but just like anything else, the more you do it the better you get and the easier it is to do next time.  I imagine if you really hate doing something like admitting your short comings to others, maybe it will make you think the next time before making a mistake again.

Let’s all realize that no one is perfect.  Let’s all realize that we all make mistakes.  Let’s now take some time to teach our children how to recognize their mistakes and how to make amends for them.  Let’s do it now, before it is too late.

Letter about School Safety

I shared the beginning of this letter at the Back to School nights last week.  I said that I would share details of the safety plans and answer some commonly asked questions, I apologize for the length of this letter but the information is very important…

 

One thing I reflected on, from the end of last school year, was the school shooting at Noblesville Middle School.  While these situations seem to occur more and more, never has one been so close to home.  I fear that with our 24 hour news cycle and the short attention spans of social media, these tragedies will soon be considered the norm by those that report such horrific attacks on our children.

 

I would like to reassure our SPX families that we have safety plans in place, in case of an emergency of any kind. These safety plans are fluid, as it is important that we learn from these events in hopes to be the best prepared, as no 2 situations have really been the same. We review and update our safety plans each year.  We communicate and train our staff with all the most up-to-date procedures and they in-turn will practice with our students.

 

Below are some commonly asked questions from parents, regarding the safety of our children and our procedures.  Please do not hesitate to contact me if you have any other questions.

 

What is the current lock down procedure for an active school shooter?

In the event of a lockdown situation, all teachers are to make sure there are no students in the hallways, close and lock their doors, turn off the lights and sit quietly away from doors and windows.  We are currently looking into new door handles that will allow teachers to be more efficient in this process.  Our hope is to have this completed in the very near future.

 

How will parents be notified if there is an active school shooter?  Via text, phone call?  Immediately or after the lockdown?
There are different types of lockdowns that could occur at school and each has a different procedure including how it is communicated.

 

1.  School lockdown - students are still allowed to go from classroom to classroom, but will not be allowed outside the building for any reason.  We will NOT allow anyone to enter the building.  This has happened at times when a suspect was in the area of our school and the police have notified us to lock down.  In this instance, we will inform parents of the events via email after the situation has been resolved.  If the timing of such lockdown affects drop off or pick up, parents will be notified via the OneCall Now system with instructions of procedural changes.

 

2.  Classroom lockdown - all teachers are to make sure there are no students in the hallways, close and lock their doors, turn off the lights and sit quietly away from doors and windows. This is what Noblesville MS had to do.  In this case, parents will be notified as soon as the situation is safe and under control, via the phone messaging system OneCall Now.  If this were to happen, instructions will follow as to what to do to retrieve children.  No communications will go out until the police have secured the location, and a plan is made for parents to pick up the children.  The more people that are on campus, in the event of such a circumstance, make things difficult for police, EMT, fire and rescue, so we will not notify parents until the procedures are in place. 

 

3.  School/Church evacuation - in the event we have to evacuate the school/church property, we have an agreement with the North Side Baptist Church and all students and staff will be relocated to the church.  In the event this happens, once all students are accounted for, the OneCall Now system will be used to notify parents and give instructions for pick up. 

 

Please understand that we have these procedures in place for everyone’s safety - your children and our staff.  So please do not come to the property until you receive instructions. This is critical for a couple of reasons:

1.       If the suspect is still at large, we do not want those involved questioning a parent who wants to make sure their child is all right.  We want the first responders involved in the search to focus only on the suspect.

2.       If you were to fill the parking lot, or line the streets with parked cars, the proper emergency vehicles might not be able to get into the parking lot.

3.       The students may have already been evacuated to another location, much like what happened at Noblesville MS, and this will cause more confusion.

 

What is the lockdown procedure on Mass days going to and from the church?

In the event that a situation arises as students are moving to and from the church, supervising teacher(s) will decide which building is closest and move the students towards that building.  In the event we are in a building lockdown, for example, the police have a suspect on the loose, students will remain in the school and not pass outside to church or vice versa until we have been notified by police that the situation is cleared.

 

What is the lockdown procedure during Mass?

At this time, we do not have a lockdown procedure at Mass.  We have discussed this at parish staff meetings, and will be formulating a plan soon.  Once this is completed, it will be shared with all involved.

 

How often do the students practice these procedures?

The state of Indiana requires that we do fire drills, once per month, and tornado drills, and security drills once per semester.

 

How are the students and teachers being instructed to address other students who may make threatening accusations or are demonstrating abnormal behavior?

If a student experiences or observes another student making threatening accusations or exhibiting abnormal behavior, we ask they tell an adult immediately - a teacher, parent, assistant, administrator, an adult of any kind.  These reports should then be communicated to the administration for investigation. Our staff has received bullying awareness and training and this will continue to be an ongoing part of our monthly staff meetings.  Teachers encourage students to reach out to an adult if another student is experiencing difficulties and we ask that parents encourage the children to do the same. 

 

Again, please know that your children’s safety is of our utmost concern and we are constantly striving to anticipate and prevent any of these situations and if one should occur, respond immediately and appropriately.  Please do not hesitate to contact me to further discuss or if I can answer any other questions.

Who is Picking These Things

“Live in such a way that if someone spoke badly of you, no one would believe it.”

 

For those of you that follow the school twitter account(@SPX7200), the above quote was posted first thing Wednesday morning.  For those that want to know my secret, each week I google “inspirational quotes” and randomly pick five quotes, one per day, for the following week.  I really have no order or rhyme or reason as to why I pick my quotes, other than to say, I find them helpful to our mission or truly inspirational.  The first quote I pick is Mondays, the second one I pick is Tuesdays, see the pattern.

 

I share Wednesday’s quote with you, because I am not sure, but pretty sure(the quandary I am in) this quote picked me and Wednesday.  I say this because I really believe I have no rhyme or reason to the quote I picked, but I am pretty sure God does.  Let me explain.

 

Each day, the Catholic Church picks a saint to honor.  This Wednesday we celebrated the life of St. Matthew, the tax collector.  Fr. Hunter had a beautiful homily explaining how Jesus simply went to Matthew and said “Follow Me,” and without hesitation, Matthew did exactly that.  From that point on, Matthew lived his life, following Jesus, and living in such a way that those that had bad things to say about him, people did not believe it.  Matthew then became a Saint and an example for us all. 

 

Fr. Hunter talked with the children about how we can change our lives, just like Matthew.  He explained how our children could be leaders by forgiving those that make us mad.  He said that IT is never too late to show mercy and to change our lives like St. Matthew changed his.

 

I share both the quote and the summary of Fr. Hunter’s homily, because they are both essentially telling us the same thing.  While I am pretty sure I have not lived my entire life in such a way that no one would speak badly of me, I, like St. Matthew, can change my life and follow Him.  It is never too late to change our ways. 

 

When we change our ways, it changes our heart.  When we forgive someone for wronging us, or offending us, it changes our heart.  When we are forgiven, by others, for wronging them, it changes our hearts.  The more we forgive, the more mercy we show and the more mercy will be given to us.  Pope Frances recently tweeted, “Mercy can truly contribute to the building up of a more humane world.”  Forgiveness is one of the many ways we can show Mercy.

 

As you can see, a randomly selected quote, and the message of the weekly Mass coincided.  What was clearly random for me, certainly was not random for God.

Congratulations to the Class of 2016

The blog this week is the speech I delivered to the St. Pius X graduating class of 2016. 

Being that this is my first year as principal of St. Pius X, and as I was deciding what to say this evening, I felt that I should tell you all a little bit about myself, because my past greatly influenced this speech.  I started my career 22 years ago, as a middle school Science teacher and spent my formative years teaching fourth grade.  My favorite subject to teach was Indiana History.  As you already know, we just celebrated the 100th running of the Greatest Spectacle in racing and in December we celebrate the 200th Anniversary of our great state.  So what better way to celebrate your final event as a St. Pius student, than relate it to the State of Indiana, for you are now a part of history.

 

Indiana is divided into three distinct regions, the northern part of the state is the Lakes and Moraines(for those that don’t know what a Moraine is, it is a glacially formed accumulation of unconsolidated glacial debris, trust me I had to look that up myself).  As we travel south, you enter into the central till and plains, and then finally end in the southern hills and lowlands.  How does this relate to me, you might ask… Allow me to explain…

 

You see, when you started your education as kindergarteners, you left the comfortable home environment, to go to school.  It was like your parents threw you into the lake, to swim and learn to survive.  Trust me, for your parents it was equally as eventful, except they had to climb over the rocky soil created by the moraines.  Low and behold, before we knew it, parents were mastering the rocky soil and you were learning to swim.  Each of you became better, stronger and more independent.  You learned everything you needed to know in Kindergarten and first grade and by the time second grade came around, you were master students.

 

From here you each moved to middle grades three through six.  Much like the central till and plains is the center of the state, you are now at the center part of your education.  Because of your knowledge, this part of the state, and your educational  journey is rather flat and easy to navigate, but it takes hard work and perseverance to get the land where you want it, and so the hard work and perseverance got you to middle school.

 

Now we move into the southern hills and lowlands.  What better way to compare middle school then with the ups and downs, and the highs and lows of the southern part of our state. 

 

The workload gets more difficult and well, just more.  You get a new principal and have to learn a different way of doing everything, some of your life long school friends are going to a different high school.  All which might feel like you are traveling in the lowland parts.

 

Then there is the Washington DC trip, winning the Hawks in the Hall basketball tournament, preparing to graduate, all of which have you reaching to top of the hills and now can see so far into the future.  It is like you are on top of the world.

 

As you leave St. Pius X and head to your high school, you have been prepared both academically and prepared to handle the ups and downs you will face in high school and beyond.  You will have to adjust to a new school, a new schedule, and a whole new set of rules, much like you had to adjust to a new principal.  Know that if you can handle the ups and downs of the southern hills and lowlands, also known as middle school, you can do anything.  Whether the road is winding and curvy, hilly or flat, your knowledge is strong, and your faith is stronger.  All of which will allow you accomplish anything you put your mind to. 

 

Before I finish, I would like to thank the parents for making this commitment to our children and our Church.  Your commitment to send your children to St. Pius all but ensures the growth of our parish and the larger church.  Our children’s success happens because of your commitment and working together to make sure your children succeed.

 

The class of 2016, you have made history here at St. Pius X.  As you journey on, continue to make history where ever you go.  Know that we wish you the best of luck in your future endeavors, that we are very proud of all that you accomplished, and that you are prepared for anything that may come your way.  Know that God is with you wherever your path takes you.