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Schools aren't the place for an 'eye for an eye'

Jan 7, 2013
We are nearly halfway through the school year at Peachtown, but January always feels like a new start, a chance to revitalize and dig in with new enthusiasm: To review what we’ve done so far, and what still needs to be done. January is fun month at Peachtown. With Wells College on semester break, we replace our regular physical education classes with sledding, and our foreign language classes with independent project time, music, drama, or other special classes. We begin reviewing scripts to select our annual drama production, and we work with our eighth ­grade students as they make their decisions about what high schools they will attend. At the peak of this busy academic year, we also begin the cycle of enrolling new students for the spring and the following year. Open houses for prospective students begin next month and continue throughout the spring. This cycle of simultaneously reviewing, practicing and planning is ongoing. We’ve had a wonderful year so far, studying botany, prehistoric life and early man. With special field trips and opportunities for our students, we couldn’t be more pleased. But we’ve also shared in the bitterness of Newtown. Every school across the country is surely reviewing its school security plan, preparing to practice emergency drills and making new plans for the future. Sadly, these experiences recur every few years, and each time we must learn and move ahead.
Learning from events such as Newtown must occur as a part of the cycle of review, practice and plan. It is too easy to overreact to such horrifying experiences. We must step back from these moments to regain our equilibrium, and then slowly and rationally measure our response. We all seek to keep our children as safe as possible, but we also need to be realistic about what schools can and should do, while still preserving our children’s sense of innocence, joy and freedom. School policies should not be about pushing back and overreacting, nor should schools play the fall guy for the failures of public policy on issues of violence, mental health and gun regulation. School is not the place for an "eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth." This is not the message we promote for our students. School policymakers must step back and consider what is reasonable and prudent. Every school will refine its emergency preparedness, but let’s hope that we all keep our schools places where children are nurtured in warm and caring environments, without guards and without weapons.
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