October is finished but the school year seems to have gotten harder in the last couple of days.—what a way to start November. After not speaking about the election season at all as a school community, November 9th brought a deluge of words… and tears.
I went to bed early election night; fear of the outcome and an oversized headache laid me to waste. When I woke up for work at 5am, I immediately turned on the news and checked my Facebook feed. There was the news. I took it all in and got ready for work.
There was a strange mood in the building, new yet familiar. It reminded me of the day after the shooting at the park where our kids were ending Spring sports practice- tense, sad and questioning. There were small groups of adults talking about their reactions to the election, among them parents who were rehashing what they said to their own children at breakfast so others could have an idea what to say to the kids at school. While in a conference with another staff member, I noticed the Social Worker in tears. It didn’t take much time for me to know how students felt; it was the topic of breakfast for middle schoolers, many who were scared to think about how Trump’s policies around immigration would hurt them and their families. But even the littler ones were impacted. Through clenched teeth one of our classroom aides told me of an encounter with a 1st grade Hispanic male student. He said to her, “I’m glad that Trump is President. That means all the Black people have to go. I can stay because I’m Hispanic.” And that’s when it hit me that there was something that we needed to do for our community.
Before I could get to my computer to send out something, fortunately, the Principal sent out an email about an afternoon circle. We huddled in the small library to let it all out and it was powerful. We used the norms of our school circles, the biggest one being- Speak Your Truth— and the truth was told. It was devastating and heartbreaking and still filled with hope. In that circle, we told of the truth of disappointment, the truth of uncertainty, the truth of trust and respect. We spoke of the comfort they got from our students when as adults they felt broken down. Through tears, we spoke the of the truth of the resilience of educators and spoke the truth of love for our children. In that circle, that day, together we spoke the truth of healing in and it was beautiful.
To learn the history of healing circles:
http://www.ceaa.gc.ca/050/documents/p63928/92023E.pdf
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