Dear Parents and Guardians,

      We understand that the events in Georgia and Maryland this week can cause some concern for parents and students alike and your students may have questions. Conversations about safety in schools can be difficult to have, but by making time to talk, allowing children to ask questions, and providing reassurance that schools are generally safe, you can help establish a sense of normalcy and security. If you need help in knowing how to have these conversations with your children, please check out this resource from the National Association of School Psychologists on how to talk to children about violence.

      You may want to share one particular point from this resource to illustrate just how safe schools are, despite the way it may seem in the media, especially following an event such as what occurred this week. " Although there is no absolute guarantee that something bad will never happen, it is important to understand the difference between the possibility of something happening and the probability that it will affect you (or our school community) directly. Even though any act of mass violence is horrible and unacceptable, the statistical likelihood of experiencing such violence in school is low. Based on data from the 2020–2021 school year, any given school might experience a shooting with casualties about once every 1,400 years.....Furthermore, the chance of getting injured or killed at school is about 1 in 450,000 (or .0000022%), with less than 3% of youth homicides of any kind occurring at school."

      We also want to remind parents and students that all school issued Chromebooks are monitored regardless if the device is on the school premises or at home. Even when connected to home networks, these devices can be monitored to assure they are not being used improperly or to look up inappropriate content. School administration receives alerts when certain keywords are searched, such as "guns" and other trigger words. While we know that students are curious when such events happen, information found online is not always accurate or reaffirming of safety, which is why, again, we encourage these conversations to come from parents, teachers, or other trusted adults in their life. Searching such topics may also result in an investigation by school administration and/or law enforcement as to why they were being researched. Please discuss this with your children and make sure they are aware of this.

      In addition to the points shared in Talking to Children About Violence: Tips for Families and Educators, it is also important to discuss the difference between being a bystander and an "upstander". While bystanders witness violence or signs for the potential for violence, being an upstander involves speaking up to a trusted adult when there is a concern. School administration and FPSB school-based mental health providers are here to help if your child has a concern about safety in their school. For more ways to talk about speaking up about concerns, please refer to the See Something, Say Something campaign information from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

By schools and parents working together, we can help keep our students safe and provide the sense of security that they need to be in a mindset for learning.