#Holdthemaccountable - A special message to our community of Heroes

February 16, 2018

Dear Centennial Academy educators and families,

While our own recent events deserve our educators' and leaders' serious attention, so also does the tragic shooting that struck trauma and death in one of our fellow public schools in Florida. I know that you, like me, carry a heavy heart for that community of students, educators, and families. Like me, you may also carry a heavy heart for our country and its failure to enact any changes to firearms laws that seem to enable this phenomenon of school shootings that happen year after year in increasing number, already 8 only two months into this new year.

In light of our own recent events in the Upper Academy and the horrific tragedy in one of our Florida schools, the question of accountability is raised to important heights. Regarding the accountability of our own Centennial Academy scholars' direct or indirect involvement in the spreading of inappropriate digital content, I want to be clear that while no one student was specifically "disciplined" for this, students were held accountable by educating them all on the potential disciplinary and legal consequences that can result for such acts. Given the large number of scholars who participated in and continued to further the acts, with no one student taking action to stop the act or inform school officials, we as the educators had to acknowledge that we were in some way ineffective at having our scholars fully understand the seriousness of the potential harms, dangers and legal ramifications for spreading offensive digital media. As such, all Upper Academy scholars were again provided digital citizenship information and emphatically informed of the school's disciplinary and potential legal ramifications for any future acts of this kind. All scholars signed an acknowledgment of their understanding of the information presented, particularly the information regarding school discipline and the law. Any Upper Academy scholar who was absent yesterday, will be required to meet with members of the Student Life team to receive the information missed and sign the digital citizenship acknowledgement as well.

As for accountability as relates to the Florida school shooting, I encourage our community of Heroes to not only keep our Florida school friends and families in prayer and thought, but to also take action as American citizens to influence the laws that enable the senseless and horrific events that make our schools unsafe. #holdthemaccountable

This indeed is a trauma that impacted our entire nation and so on Tuesday, you will notice our flag lowered to half-staff to show our connection to and embrace of our fellow citizens who were directly affected in Florida. Please also trust that while no safety measure guarantees a crisis will not happen, we do have protocols and drills in place to help our educators and scholars together with our local law enforcement agencies to be prepared for responding to such a crisis.

It is always sad and disturbing when there is an incident that threatens school safety. At this time when Centennial Academy's particular events are unbecoming of our school standards and aims, keep in mind that our commitment to Embracing Excellence comes also in the way we work together to respond to and overcome unfortunate circumstances that face our community. With that at the forefront of my mind, I thank you all again for the way each individual parent, educator, scholar and friend contributes to the solidarity of the Centennial Academy community as we uphold our core value of Excellence, even in times of difficulty.

Heroes today, Legends tomorrow…

Carol Santos
Head of School