“Culture” is derived from the Latin word cultus, which means to care and honor. As schools scramble to develop new operational plans, they need to ensure that their foundational beliefs, perceptions, relationships, and attitudes are all deeply rooted in honoring and caring for all students. It will be those factors that transcend into the written and unwritten rules and polices that influence how the school will function in the midst of a pandemic. COVID-19 has changed the way we do business as a school. The outbreak of coronavirus continues to negatively impact a school’s ability to reopen in the traditional model that families and students have grown to depend on. COVID-19 has challenged and changed many aspects of how our school systems operate. One aspect of our school’s systems and afterschool programming that we must strive to keep intact is the school and program culture.

In the past six months, students were rapidly pulled from the learning environment and asked to stay home and socially isolate. They were not able to interact in person with their class peers, nor were they able to participate in the normal activities that signal the end of the school year. Top this with any dramatic and rapid loss they may have experienced in their personal lives, and you have a perfect recipe for emotional and psychological trauma. For the sake of today’s conversation, let’s define trauma as “the response to a deeply distressing event that overwhelms an individual’s ability to cope, causes feeling of helplessness, and diminishes their sense of self and their ability to feel the full range of emotion and experiences.” Read the continuation of Ms. Owens-Howard’s insightful guest blog here.