[BHS Etree] ADMIN: Appreciation and Remembrance

[BHS etree]

Dear BHS Families:

 

We returned to school Monday after two very different weeks. We finished
spirit week in grand fashion with a positive and energetic rally
coordinated by our student leadership and Chris Young, our Director of
Student Activities. Our administrators and safety staff also worked
overtime to prepare for and then manage the week. Special thanks should go
out to Vernon Walton, Vice-Principal, and Billy Keys, Lead Safety Officer,
who put in many hours towards the less glitzy end of the planning-
crafting supervision plans, revising exit and entry plans, coordinating
first-aid, etc.

 

I also must personally thank the huge number of parents who gave their
time to help us supervise and support the rally. Your presence was a
significant support and the administrative team and I are deeply
appreciative of a parent community that can marshal that sort of presence
for an event that is indeed a logistical challenge. Thank you very very
much for the support. 

 

Your kids were generally incredible during spirit week. The overwhelming
majority of our students were enthusiastic, incomparably energetic, and
quite responsible during all of spirit week.

 

Last week, the tone shifted to grief and our community suffered a now
well-publicized loss when one of our 9th graders, Malik Grayson, passed
away from a gunshot wound. The details surrounding Malik's passing are
still under investigation and we will defer to the public information
Berkeley P.D. provides when it becomes available and as it is appropriate.


 

The other student involved in the incident was a Berkeley High School
student but is no longer attending Berkeley High School.

 

We remain in contact with Malik's family and, depending on their
preferences, will make announcements about services when they are
scheduled if they ask us to share that information. We ask that all
members of our community keep good thoughts for Malik's family and his
friends as they face the deep pain that accompanies the premature passing
of a loved one. 

 

A violent incident on Sacramento Street not long before Malik's passing,
an incident that claimed the life of the father of a BHS student, also
contributed to a number of students and staff members experiencing the
anxiety, grief, anger and loss that violence and tragedy often generate. I
am deeply committed to the proposition that the massive energy and
collective spirit this school produced during spirit week can in fact be
harnessed and used to get us through times that are not celebratory, times
that require us to support each other through things like sadness and
loss. 

 

I am meeting with some staff and community members tomorrow to consider
how BHS might best honor and remember Malik.

 

Through it all we will continue to work to create safe and empowering
spaces where students can learn; spaces where they can create, analyze,
interpret, critique, grow, and eventually help reinvent our world in a way
that phases out incidents like these from the human experience. 

 

Respectfully, 

 

Pasquale Scuderi

Principal

Berkeley High School

 

 

________________

Diane Douglas, Marguerite Fa-Kaji and Pat Anderson are the
parent-volunteer facilitators of the etree; please direct any questions to
them at  <mailto:bhs-owner at lmi.net> bhs-owner at lmi.net. 

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