Rebuttal -- Daryle Palmer

While I agreed with much in Steve Smith’s column “Bullies, vandals

must learn actions have consequences” in the Saturday edition of the

Daily Pilot, I was surprised to read his statements that “violence has

escalated to the point where outside intervention is occurring” at Kaiser

Elementary School.

I was confused on multiple levels, beginning with what data or

information led Smith to believe that Kaiser has violence, particularity

beyond the “common schoolyard scraps” on campus and that the violence has

been escalating?

I do not recall any interview nor have any members of the Kaiser

community spoken about an interview or personal concern for their child’s

safety from “escalating violence.” If Smith’s primary source of

information was from the Daily Pilot article “School seeks solution for

campus violence,” a few days earlier, I have to ask if he read the entire

story.

While the headline may have been misleading, in reading the article

one would have recognized this was a preventive and empowering program

based on research from the Institute to End School Violence.

That research found that the factors that lead to school violence

often begin in elementary school and erupt on junior high and high school

campuses. The purpose of the “Chicken Soup for the Pre Teen Soul” lessons

were to pilot a nonviolent curriculum that addressed those factors;

factors that cause students to feel excluded, isolated, angry, and

without options for addressing these feelings.

This proactive approach of exploring these factors is in line with the

belief at Kaiser that all students are “professional students” and are

responsible for their actions, their success, their mistakes and the

consequences that follow these actions.

We focus on empowering students to respond in a variety of positive

ways when they encounter situations that are not “professional” and may

include aggressive behavior, wherever it might occur.

I am saddened that by not researching the story Smith has inferred a

negative stereotype, a violent campus, on Kaiser Elementary School.

This is simply incorrect and unfair to the over 700 students who

attend here daily in a respectful, professional manner. I extend my

personal invitation to you, Smith, to visit our campus at any time.

I believe he will be warmed by the daily interaction of the students

and adults at Kaiser. He will then see that the curriculum was a

proactive measure, to teach personal responsibility for one’s actions as

a member of our school, our community and our world, and to empower

students with positive skills. This was not a reactive move, and his

column about our school and the program did a great disservice to Kaiser

Elementary, our students and community.

I can only surmise this was due to his lack of information and

research into the atmosphere at Kaiser Elementary School and the intent

of the program. If he were a student at Kaiser, I would say, “You have a

personal and professional responsibility to research and research again

anything you say or write which might be harmful or hurtful to someone

else.”

* DARYLE PALMER is the principal of Kaiser Elementary School.