AWSP Blog

At the moment, it seems like “school safety” – one issue or another – is on top of everyone’s mind. Many of us have been hearing about ‘devious licks’ and ‘COVID assassins’ challenges, Twitch Hate Raids, an inordinate number of fights, more Threat Assessments than usual, serious mental health challenges for students and staff, lack of staffing for almost everything, and more. Knowing that you probably won’t have the time to read a long blog post, I will be as succinct as possible in sharing some school safety updates and resources.

It is no secret that although we are all excited to have students back in our schools, the consistent message coming from principals and assistant principals across the state is that this year is quickly proving to be even more challenging than last year. We want you to know that we hear you and that we are here for you. The layers of school leadership right now are massively complex and challenging.

Believe me, we understand. The last thing you need right now is to deal with a destructive and disappointing trend among students across the country. If you haven’t heard, one of the things trending on social media giant TikTok is essentially a string of school thefts and vandalisms. It is the last thing you need on top of your already heaping plates. I’m ticked just hearing about it, so I can only imagine your frustrations.

WEA’s Inclusionary Practices Project (IPP) and Special Education Support Center (SESC) are offering courses online for teachers in real-time via Zoom. These are lead by Katie Novak and Mirko Chardin and cover a variety of topics including UDL, Accommodations and Modifications, parent connections, and so much more.

Bumblebee Haven Garden is situated on Okanogan School District property in rural, North Central Washington. Started a few years ago by a now retired teacher, local native peoples, and local Conservation District, students K-12 have the access to learn about vermiculture (growing soil from compost from worms), tending to land, and most importantly, growing food next to native plants on native land. The land was once a meeting place for the peoples of the Confederated Tribes of the Colville Reservation, which encompasses several different tribes. Since starting the garden, teachers, students, and community members create soil to create windrows of tomatoes, potatoes, different types of squash, and others, along with native plants for pollinators. Each Tuesday during summer and harvest season, people of all ages meet to harvest and work in the windrows. Some get to take a bit of food home, but mostly, all harvested food is donated to the local Okanogan Food Bank.