By NewsLine Staff
mail@floridanewsline.com
Safety and security are on everyone’s minds because of SB 7026 (the new Public Safety Act). PVPV/Rawlings was well ahead of this, and had already beefed up campus security with additional fencing, single entry points and key card scanners. Like every St. Johns County School, this year also brings a full time armed school safety officer.
PVPV/Rawlings has also gone beyond the hardening of its campus…to the hearts of its children. Students are being invited to join the Kindness Crew.
“We’re beginning a new Positive Behavior Support program to encourage kindness and build our culture of caring for each other,” said Principal Caty Van Housen.
Van Housen said the 2018 – 2019 school initiative is meant to create a positive difference in the lives of others through kindness. Kindness messages are featured daily on the morning news show by students. Weekly lessons blending kindness matters and bullying education, along with the well-established St. Johns County School District’s Character Counts! initiative, encourage students to complete weekly self-reflective journaling.
To establish clear and consistent expectations and to encourage students to make good choices, Kindness Crew “THINK” banners hang throughout campus:
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- T Think before you act
- H Hands to self
- I Include others
- N Nice words
- K Kind Acts
Kind acts by students are rewarded with “Kindness Crew” tickets. The tickets are turned in to have the student’s name posted on a sea turtle riding the “Wave of Kindness” displayed in the main hallway. The tickets are also entered in a quarterly drawing for a special prize, provided by the school’s supportive PTO.
Guidance Counselors Christy Thacker and Stacey O’Brien offer classroom lessons and small group counseling sessions for specific student needs. Their small groups help students who feel troubled, as well as those who struggle with being kind to others.
Kindness Crew curriculum and information is shared with parents through the “Turtle Talk” section of the school’s monthly online newsletter, The Wave.
“Our hope is that the wave of kindness will swell and spread throughout the entire community,” Van Housen said. “Won’t you join the Kindness Crew?”
Photo courtesy PV/PV Rawlings
Members of the PVPV/Rawlings Kindness Crew: Maddy Glunt, Gracie Glunt, Harmon Koon, Mina Bohsali, Edith Alford and Jackson Bohsali.
