Several weeks ago I was walking from the All Star room back to my nurse’s office at the end of lunch when I realized there were about 150 students outside encircling the main foyer doors. As I walked closer, I heard shouting. To my disbelief at least a quarter of the bystanders were cheering two students to fight before Mr. Fusaro broke it up. The scene still sickens me. The group mentality that cheers fighting to ostensibly settle something or just entertain is incomprehensible and deeply disturbing to me. The chanting was bone chilling from the students who I love to work with every day. So what is the school nurse doing with this soap box? I want to encourage health, both for individuals and for our school community. I’m glad the people who were fighting eventually chose to use the peer mediation available at FHS. I’m delighted there is peer counseling and the multitude of other healthy choices of action available to students at FHS. Ultimately, I hope each of us at FHS, both staff and students, will look within ourselves to see what kinds of “consumption” we are practicing. I believe our consumption influences our behavior choices. I hope that we will try in our wonderful and crazy world to take in only what is truly healthy, physically and mentally, for ouselves, our school, family and larger communities. Perhaps then we can transform violence and fear into healthier choices for my old age and your seventies and your children’s children’s seventies. I hear that being optimistic is good for your health! |
