Ever since our grandson first started school, we’ve read a letter of appreciation at the end of each year. As he embarks on a new chapter of his educational life, our appreciation for the Hampton Elementary School staff over the last four years deserves a larger audience.
Our grandson started pre-school in January of 2022. Four months later he would endure the worst tragedy a child ever could. The staff was there for him, and for us, with personal calls, cards, providing meals for a month to our family, and most meaningfully, sharing memories of his mother, our daughter.
The following year, three staff volunteered to testify in court on our behalf – anyone who’s ever endured this will understand – it’s never an easy thing; true, the judge ignored every word of the credible testimony of all of the professionals — social workers, teachers, and therapists, but that helped form the basis of an appeal, and we were ultimately successful in righting a horrible wrong. Somewhere along the way, our grandson, through our family, his therapist, and the school, gained the strength to let his own voice be heard, whether the “authorities” liked it or not. He became the hero of his own story, and was finally sent where he belongs, home.
Throughout all of this, the school accommodated his emotional needs, understood and tended to the post-traumatic stress needlessly inflicted upon him, worked in concert with us for his academics; and he become a reader, a writer, most notably a poet, and a “word wizard”. In short, this school was just what our grandson needed during the most difficult years of his life. For this we will be forever grateful.
For his superb classroom teachers, the paraprofessionals, particularly Mrs. Penrod who was one of his mother’s dearest friends – we knew he was looked after and loved in this exceptional way, special teachers as well, particularly Mrs. Garrison who went to school with his mother – and shared stories with him of their growing up together, the nurse, Mrs. Danielson – could there be a warmer person on earth? — and Ms. Sorrel, who has always, and continues to be, there for him whenever he needs her to be. The administrators, too, went the extra mile for him and for his family, all three principals, and a superintendent who, meeting with us on another, non-related matter, spoke of our grandson’s kindness towards others. How good it is to know that a superintendent has personal knowledge of individual children. We can tell you from experience with school systems, this is not common.
The small size of the school has proven a liability of late in terms of things like grade configurations and budgets. It’s also the school’s strength, with the supportive, intimate environment it nurtures. Unfortunately, politics sometimes tears this fabric at its periphery, and it shouldn’t. In this small environment there’s no room for isolation, no room to exclude the minimal diversity we have.
It is our hope, for the sake of the school, its children and families, the example the staff sets encourages its community of families to preserve the supportiveness exemplified within the walls of the school – it’s what’s worth saving.
Juan and Dayna Arriola