Dear Oyster Adams Families,
Today we joyfully closed our second successful week at school, and receive our beloved little ones at the close of OCA and the school day. As I embrace my own children, I am deeply mindful of those parents in Georgia that were not able to do the same this week.
Keeping schools and children safe should be a national priority, and one that every adult at OA holds sacred. As a school leader, my commitment has always been to design systems that I would want for my own children's safety, and Dr. Fortson and I will ensure that remains true. In my entry conversations, I shared with many of you the Safety Protocol revisions in our Family Handbook, but I want to highlight a critical one this week. We will be practicing our Lockdown Drills across both campuses next week. As veteran OA parents know, this is a 2x/year requirement in DCPS, but given the national news, we have an obligation to approach this with trauma-informed sensitivity.
I ask that you read this Drill Notification Letter from Dr. Fortson carefully as it details times and days for our drills, and some of the preparation we do with students before a drill. Per DCPS protocol, during our drills instruction stops, we lock doors, cover shades and windows, and ask students to be silent and away from the line of external sight. Drills are always significantly under 15 minutes (the max permitted). Additionally we will follow guidelines from the National Association of School Psychologists (NASP) on drill procedures, including supporting families and students with advance notification as we are doing now.
I offer this guide from the NASP on how to talk to your children about the need for drills like these, and how to respond to their questions about violence in the news. At OA, faculty are particularly mindful about developmentally appropriate responses to children's questions, and will use these guidelines frequently. We will not explicitly mention traumatic events that students hear about in the media, but we honor their voices if they ask questions. In particular, our older students often need a space to process their thoughts and ideas. We reiterate common and critical messages, such as: "We work together to keep everyone safe." "You are loved here."
We have mental health professionals at OA who are trained to respond, and every staff member at our school is also charged with taking a therapeutic and kind approach with our children to support them holistically. Please let your AP's know if your child would benefit from additional support at school before or after these drills. As my colleague at the Chisholm school says, "Our children may be little, but sometimes they have big emotions and feelings that we must validate and sometimes help them process in a healthy way."
In partnership as a mother and an educator,
Carolina Brito
