A version of this story appears in The Daily Norwalk
Last Monday morning, the police were searching all over Norwalk for a man suspected of shooting his ex-wife and mother-in-law. In response, interim Superintendent Michael Nast ordered a partial lockdown of all the city's schools. The lockdown lasted for a few hours until the suspect was apprehended at 12:15 p.m. After Monday’s incident, parents have been asking themselves how to address the difficult subject of lockdowns and random violence with their children.
“There is a reality of what goes on in the world,” says Nancy Fuzesi, a social worker in the Norwalk Public schools for the past 20 years. “But our goal as adults is to make children feel safe.”
Fuzesi who currently works at Columbus Elementary school, which had another lockdown in April, says that parents and school staff need to keep the message positive and focused on safety. “Instead of presenting everything as scary, we need to tell kids that school is a safe place like home. Just like at home, sometimes we need to lock our doors.”
According to Assistant Superintendent Tony Daddona, during a partial lockdown all the children who are outside for recess and gym are brought inside and the doors are locked. During a full lockdown, all the window coverings are shut and the children must move away entirely from the window. Daddona said that there was a message on the district‘s website about Monday’s partial lockdown. Some schools communicated directly with parents.
Fuzesi says there is a fine line between being prepared for the real world and growing up with a feeling of safety and security. “Kids understand that bad things happen, they practice fire drills and lockdowns in school.”
“Tell them that there are sometimes things that happen in a community that have absolutely nothing to do with them or their family,” says Fuzesi who has also worked at Naramake Elementary and Ponus Ridge Middle School. “This helps to keep it distant.” Fuzesi cautions about saying too much to children. “Answer their questions, be honest, but it is not necessary to go into too much detail." Fuzesi says social workers at all of the city’s schools are able to support parents who need guidance on how to talk to children about difficult issues.
Last Monday morning, the police were searching all over Norwalk for a man suspected of shooting his ex-wife and mother-in-law. In response, interim Superintendent Michael Nast ordered a partial lockdown of all the city's schools. The lockdown lasted for a few hours until the suspect was apprehended at 12:15 p.m. After Monday’s incident, parents have been asking themselves how to address the difficult subject of lockdowns and random violence with their children.
“There is a reality of what goes on in the world,” says Nancy Fuzesi, a social worker in the Norwalk Public schools for the past 20 years. “But our goal as adults is to make children feel safe.”
Fuzesi who currently works at Columbus Elementary school, which had another lockdown in April, says that parents and school staff need to keep the message positive and focused on safety. “Instead of presenting everything as scary, we need to tell kids that school is a safe place like home. Just like at home, sometimes we need to lock our doors.”
According to Assistant Superintendent Tony Daddona, during a partial lockdown all the children who are outside for recess and gym are brought inside and the doors are locked. During a full lockdown, all the window coverings are shut and the children must move away entirely from the window. Daddona said that there was a message on the district‘s website about Monday’s partial lockdown. Some schools communicated directly with parents.
Fuzesi says there is a fine line between being prepared for the real world and growing up with a feeling of safety and security. “Kids understand that bad things happen, they practice fire drills and lockdowns in school.”
“Tell them that there are sometimes things that happen in a community that have absolutely nothing to do with them or their family,” says Fuzesi who has also worked at Naramake Elementary and Ponus Ridge Middle School. “This helps to keep it distant.” Fuzesi cautions about saying too much to children. “Answer their questions, be honest, but it is not necessary to go into too much detail." Fuzesi says social workers at all of the city’s schools are able to support parents who need guidance on how to talk to children about difficult issues.
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Parents would work with the schools if they aware or informed on the ‘lockdown’ process. It’s ridiculous to use the website as a form of announcing a citation that involves the safety of the kids. Does Central Office truly believe that they have done their job with communicating with parents by simply making a statement on the website? Unreal and unacceptable! Utilizing the website as a form of 'Notice' is ridiculous. Not all parents are on the website or have instant access to a computer - so this is a poor choice to communicate such emergencies. Communications Committee - what role do you play in this? What role are you playing at all?
ReplyDelete147p I totally agree. Why, as a parent, did I not get notified sooner than finding out about this event in The Hour. Good Freeking Grief. "It's up to the principal how they communicate"...How on earth you would even reach anyone in our school by telephone, though. You CAN NOT get a live person at our elementary school, no matter what time. So, Communications Committee, how do I find out about this sooner than in the local paper? And is this info only disseminated by internet? The only time I check the NPS site is for closings and lunch menus, you don't even keep BOE minutes up to date on it.
ReplyDeleteI agree with all comments regarding communications from the Central Office or should I say LACK OF communications from the Central Office and even our own schools. There was a time when a telephone chain was in place and every students' family could be contacted when an emergency message needed to be sent. With the new Privacy Laws the phone chain became an outdated and illegal method of contacting parents. It forced the PTOs in each school to create an email system to get information/communications out to the families. That in itself is flawed because the group who should be pushing the information about emergencies is the Central Office and if all they have time to do is put an insipid statement on a website then the lack of communication will continue. How come we were all asked to sign up for the NPSconnect system in Sept 2009 and it is now June 2010 and the system is still NOT running? Redding school systems have procedures in place for Lockdowns but they also have a procedure in place of how to contact parents and let them know WHAT is going on at the time it is happenning - they use a List Serv system and parents are notified and know what is happenning in their schools. Maybe we should be talking with other school districts and actually creating procedures and processes for improving the communications between our schools and the families that support those schools and who are trusting them to keep our children safe.
ReplyDeleteLack of communication is right....The suspect was aprehended at 12:15. Some schools didn't call a lockdown until 12:00. Scary!!!! Guess those blackberries are useless!!!!
ReplyDeleteThe "partial" lockdown was called earlier in the day and two schools were specifically targeted and given extra police presence...that is somewhat reassuring, but it was disconcerting to learn that Columbus Magnet allowed their students to be bussed to Shady Beach for a picnic during the supposed lockdown across the school system...wonder how the parents of those children must feel? At least I found out my children at Wolfpit School had police on campus all morning. That being said, it would have been helpful if a call had come from the reverse 911 for the city of Norwalk or the Central Office for NPS had made outcalls alerting parents to what was happening. I guess it is going to take a tragedy to occur before someone gets it that we are all on the same side and communication is necessary.
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