Dear Parents,

Can you believe we are at Christmas already?  We hope that you and your family will be able to enjoy this season with the peace of Christ in your hearts.  

We want to kindly ask that you take a few moments to discuss an important matter with your child over Christmas break.  In the past years we have all heard and seen how students have faced serious consequences for making threats (both fake and real).  We take student safety very seriously and have taken steps to ensure a safe learning environment for all students.  Students, staff, and parents all have an important role in promoting student safety.  

We wanted to send home a letter on the importance of speaking to your child about the impact of their words and actions.  Young people struggle with impulsivity, which means they may not always think before they do things.  Please prioritize having age-appropriate conversations with your child to make sure they understand the long-term consequences of making threats.  We don’t ever want a child to be in a situation where they’re having very serious consequences because of something they said that maybe they didn’t even mean.  Even if it was meant to be a joke, a fake threat of violence is taken very seriously by law enforcement.

Here are a few examples of threats:

• talking about committing an act of violence against a person, adult, or school (i.e. “I’m going to kill you”, “You should die”)
• texting or posting about committing a violent act on social media

Please understand, because of the culture we live in, all verbal or written threats are subject to a threat assessment by the Lee County Sheriff’s Office. 

But more importantly, please consider sharing with your child what God’s expectations are for their speech. ECS is a Christian institution which means it is our desire to honor Christ and to encourage our students to become more like Christ. This includes using words that build up (Ephesians 4:29). Speaking words that give grace (Colossians 4:6). We also want to help young students understand the wisdom of being careful and wise with their words (Proverbs 10:19). A big part of both knowing Christ and becoming like Christ is having the mind of Christ which considers others more important than ourselves (Philippians 2:3-4). Making threats and using foul language fails to live up to God’s expectations for our speech (Ephesians 5:4).

It is our desire that through the power of the gospel each child’s heart would be transformed in such a way that they would sincerely desire to honor and glorify God from their hearts with the words that they say (Psalm 19:14). That is what we pray and aim when teaching students about God’s expectations for their words. 

Here are a few things you can speak to your child about:

• Reiterate the school rules and expectations and request that students report potential problems to school officials (teachers, principal, dean, and school counselor).
• Remind students of the importance of resisting peer pressure to act irresponsibly. 
• If we are upset and/or angry, we must seek an adult for help instead of using harmful words or actions.  
• Verbal, written (text or posted on social media), can lead to suspension, expulsion and can even be punishable by law.
• Finally, encourage your child to be a helpful bystander.  If someone is being threatened or intimidated, they should find an adult and report it. 

We hope this is a help to all of our families. Have a blessed Christmas season!

Grandparent’s Day Update Please Mark Your Calendar!

Grandparent’s Day has always been a special day for us here at ECS. We love our families so much and want to continue to make fun memories with them. With all of our growth it has become difficult to fit all of our special guests inside the classroom. It has also been difficult to find parking which can make this event a bit stressful or difficult for our visitors. We have been discussing ways to make this event a better experience for our families. We have also taken into consideration the feedback we have received over the years.

In order to make these changes we needed to push the date back a bit. Because we share our school space with many different departments there is much to consider and organize when planning events of this size.

This year we will have Grandparent’s Day in the gym and each grade level will have their own assigned day and time. Grandparents will all enter the gym through the main gym lobby doors, which means there is no need to stand in a long line waiting for a badge to enter the school. By having this special event spread out over two days it will help to make it easier to find parking. Having the event in the gym will give us more space where we will be able to have a chair for each of our visitors which will help them to be more comfortable.

It is our hope that making these changes will provide more parking, better seating, less waiting in line trying to check in, and an overall much more enjoyable event!

These changes should help to make the event more enjoyable for our honored guests. As a bonus treat, students are permitted to leave after the program with their grandparents so they may continue to enjoy their special day together.

Please mark your calendars:

Thursday, March 7th
5th 9:30
1st 11:00
K5 12:30

Friday, March 8th
3rd 9:00
K4 10:30
2nd 12:00
4th 1:15