web link: What It Takes to Lead a School After a Shooting
Last December 7th, Aztec High School experienced
a horrible and tragic event when a young man who had attended the school over
five years before walked on our campus and took the lives of Casey Jordan Marquez
and Francisco “Paco” Fernandez. The active shooter event lasted a little more
than 7 minutes, when the shooter took his own life seconds before the police
arrived on scene. Our heroic police department in Aztec responded to our call
for help within 4 minutes and emergency responders from all corners of San Juan
County, NM assisted with the subsequent release of lockdown, campus evacuation,
and reunification with families.
In the ten months that have passed since this event, our
local sheriff’s department and the FBI have conducted investigations looking at
the crime from numerous angles. From these investigations, and from our shared
perspective, the leadership in Aztec Schools have learned much about what
carried us through that day. For instance, we know that the shooter planned a
far worse death count. Casey and Paco innocently surprised the gunman as he was
preparing; those first shots alerted staff to secure classrooms and signal a
campus-wide lockdown. Following lockdown training and radio communication
prevented the gunman’s attempt to enter two classrooms. In short, our staff was
heroic, and while our fidelity to protocol was not perfect, training and
communication saved lives that day. Even an imperfect recall of training is
better than not having trained at all; I don’t think that I’ll ever look at
even the most routine safety training with a lax perspective again.
EdWeek’s request for this article comes as the student
leadership, staff and I are in the middle of planning how the school will
structure the one year anniversary of our tragedy. We will never forget the
precious lives lost that day and the heroic response from our community. As a
whole, the kids have been resilient and inspiring in the way they have begun to
use their collective voice to call for unity and mutual support as a way through
our ongoing recovery. So, from a principal’s personal perspective, I have far
more advice to share on what has gotten me through the past ten months of
community rebuilding, than I would ever be able to say about that day a year
ago.
Post-tragedy, a principal needs to be prepared to deal with
a wide variety of opinions and perspectives on how the school needs to respond
and/or change in the wake of what has happened. How does one lead, when strong
voices and weak voices in the community all need to be heard long before a plan
is put into place? How does one deal with the reality that some decisions are
not going to be left to the site leadership alone? How does a leader deal with
his or her own self-doubt while seeking to listen to and empower others who are
just as traumatized by events? Three very personal lessons come to mind that I
can share with my professional peers:
Lesson one: Remember that you’re not in it alone. Delegating
power and releasing control are traits that principals often want to nurture.
The daily perspectives we deal with are already numerous and most principals
I’ve met are pretty good at leading as coalition-builders. After a school
tragedy, it is natural that the building principal is someone that people are
going to want to check in with about big decisions on the school’s response.
Make sure to regularly connect with others in your sphere of influence, and/or
chain of command, to establish the crucial perspectives that you want to be
heard when input is asked for or your leadership is called for.
Lesson Two: Work to keep the kids front and center by
supporting a clear structure for listening to the kids’ wants and needs as
decisions are being made; then be prepared to incorporate student voices that
feel left out. Just like the adults in our communities, the kids with the
strongest voices are likely to be the first to surface and advocate. And, like
a good teacher who structures a solid classroom discussion on a passionate
topic; a principal needs to formalize the discussion and encourage various
perspectives to listen to one another so that even the quiet voices have an
opportunity to be heard.
Lesson three: Reconnect with the reasons why you do this
job. Self-doubt can definitely creep in as the day-to-day decision making and
school management call for a principal’s attention long before a leader has
adequately had time to address his or her own mental wellness. Accepting help
from mental health professionals is just as important for the leader as it is
for everyone else after a tragedy. On a purely personal level, I’ve come to
understand the need to stay in tune with my spiritual core so that I can continue
in a profession that I believe is my life calling. In the book of Philippians,
the Apostle Paul reminds us that we can do all things through Him who
strengthens us. Reconnecting with the why in what I do has been very important
to me. If that divine grace was good enough for a great man of faith like Paul
then it is certainly good enough for me.
