A Letter To Common Ground Families In Response to the Tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary

On December 21st, Common Ground students gathered to express their solidarity with the students of Sandy Hook Elementary School.

Dear Common Ground Families,

(Español) As educators, we go to work every day to teach children, and we try our very best to ensure that our students are physically and emotionally safe so that learning can take place. That best effort was not enough on Friday in Sandy Hook where an unspeakable tragedy unfolded, one that has left us all feeling angry, and helpless, and scared. This is a time of great sadness, especially for the school community of Sandy Hook Elementary, to whom we send our heartfelt condolences and support.

We know that hearing news like this strikes fear in every parent and guardian’s heart and touches every child in every type of school.  Our goal at this time is to acknowledge the difficulty of the moment, expressing empathy and grief for all the victims, and to reassure our Common Ground families that we are doing everything in our power to keep your children safe. We have a meeting scheduled with the Chief of Police in January at which we will talk about our existing safety plan. We will also be reviewing our safety and security precautions internally in the days ahead and will notify parents about any changes that we make. Finally, a parent forum to discuss school safety in general will be scheduled after the holiday break.

I want to share some resources to help your family in the coming days and weeks:

• A new resource center from the Connecticut Commission on Children on coping with the events in Newtown
• A set of resources from the National Association of School Psychologists regarding talking to children about violence
• Some tips for parents for helping adolescents after disasters from the National Child Traumatic Street Network 

At the same time, please feel free to call me directly at school or on my cell, 203 506-4391, or to stop in if you would like to talk about any of this. My door is open.

Take care,

Lizanne Cox
Director
Common Ground High School