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Tuesday, November 17, 2015


Dear Friends,The terrorist attacks that have taken place around the world have created tremendous pain and suffering and have once again forced us to try to make sense of the senseless. In addition, these events and those who have claimed responsibility for them have ushered in a new wave of unease among Washingtonians, recalling a level of concern that we last experienced after 9/11 and during the sniper crisis.Our principals, faculty, and staff will, of course, remain attentive to the emotional needs of students as they process this latest wave of violence. At the Lower School, Shereen Beydoun and classroom teachers are prepared to address questions from students should they arise and will be in touch with parents as appropriate. Middle and Upper School students will have the opportunity to process these events at Meeting for Worship and in direct conversation with faculty. Sally Selby is planning to do some programming at Middle School Meeting. Yesterday, Mamadou Guèye began the morning by asking Upper School students and teachers to share in a moment of silence for all victims of terrorism across the world and opened the Robert L. Smith Meeting Room for students during lunch.Episodes of violence often trigger our worst fears about the safety of our children, and we at Sidwell Friends School take the obligation to care for our students with the utmost seriousness. Our crisis management and communication plan is routinely reviewed by outside experts and law enforcement officials, and, as you know, students practice drills on a regular basis. In addition, we reassess and adjust our plan after episodes of school violence and relevant world events. We have already been in conversation with law enforcement officials who have affirmed our protocols and systems and who have assured us of their readiness to assist with relevant matters. The School administration has also conferred with the Clerk of the Board of Trustees and the Clerk of our Committee on Critical Infrastructure and Security to seek expertise, guidance, and approval for adjustments. Best practices prohibit us from providing specific details about security and crisis management, but please be assured that the safety of your children is our top priority, and that we always seek to balance security needs with creating a culture that is conducive to learning.In the midst of hatred and violence, we often find ourselves searching for the right words to say to our children. Those of you looking for guidance might find these resources from the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychology, the Center for Social and Emotional Education, the Center for Spiritual and Ethical Education, and the University of Michigan Health System to be helpful. But I would also encourage you to consider the advice of the Quaker educator Parker Palmer. “It is no accident that all of the world’s wisdom traditions address themselves to the fact of fear,” he writes, “for all of them originated in the human struggle to overcome this ancient enemy. And all of these traditions, despite their great diversity, unite in one exhortation to those who walk in their ways: ‘Be not afraid.’” These traditions, Parker recognizes, “don’t say you can’t have fear, but they say you don’t have to be your fears, and you don’t have to create a world in which those fears dominate the conditions of many, many people.”In particular, we don’t want our fears to dominate the lives of our children, so as we address the violence, we want to respond rationally and confidently, to assure our children that many adults are being vigilant about their well-being. We want to maintain routines and be attentive to fear without succumbing to it. Many of the holidays we will soon celebrate are devoid of fear and full of faith, hope, love, light, beauty, and peace. In the presence of these qualities—and perhaps more so in the absence of fear—we often find ourselves to be more generous, more open, more centered than at any other time of the year. And when we are free of fear, we are better positioned to appreciate the moment and be present with one another.This coming Thanksgiving, I hope you will take a moment to be present with your family and to express gratitude for the love and joy that you share. And as we prepare to pause next week, I want to express thanks to our faculty, staff, parents, students, and alumni for caring so deeply about this community. In addition, I am grateful for the Quaker mission of imagining a world in which we might one day “deny all outward wars and strife under any pretense whatsoever.”May you find peace and happiness over the coming holiday.In friendship and with gratitude,Bryan


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