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| NHS Senior Lucas Lear welcoming the faculty and staff back to school in August |
Students can be the most powerful teachers.
A few weeks ago, I invited Needham High School senior Lucas Lear to welcome the faculty and staff back to school at our annual General Staff Meeting.
Lucas, who is an athlete and the Disability Advocacy Officer for the NHS Best Buddies Chapter, is a highly respected student leader at the high school, and he spoke eloquently before an assembly of 800 staff - no small task. He was a little nervous and joked that while it was daunting to speak to the faculty, it was even more challenging to be a New York Giants fan in Boston!
In his address to our staff, Lucas reflected on his life with hemiplegia—a profound paralysis on his right side caused by a traumatic injury in infancy. After he spoke we gave him a rousing and well deserved standing ovation for his thoughtful and moving remarks which included this observation:
"What I've learned is that everybody is carrying something. Mine you can see. Most people’s, you can't. The kid who seems checked out, the colleague who seems short with you—you have no idea what their week looks like. So that’s my whole ask: Be there for each other—students, teachers, staff—the small stuff is the big stuff." With clarity and wisdom, Lucas expressed his hope for us—a charge really—as we began a new school year.
In the days following that gathering, our Needham Public Schools community honored Lucas’s words by lifting up our students and each other after we learned of the tragic loss of an 11th grade student.
In classrooms throughout the district I witnessed young people and staff struggling to comprehend a student’s sudden death. I observed NHS Principal Sicotte lead restorative conversations with grief-stricken classmates and teammates. I watched teachers and staff support confused and upset students and colleagues even as they grappled with their own emotions. I was moved by seeing football teammates embrace in high school hallways sharing their heartbreak and loss.
These were small but powerful acts of care, compassion and grace.
And I have been so appreciative of the outpouring of support from the broader community, particularly local school districts who reached out to offer condolences, the parents who generously supplied pizza and snacks and the police officers from across the state who arrived with their service dogs to NHS—bringing comfort during an immensely difficult time.
Confronting the untimely death of a student is the hardest and most painful thing for an educator to do, and, unfortunately, it is simply not within our power to keep a tragedy like this away. The best we can do is to act with empathy, patience, resilience and hope.
The best we can do is to be there for each other and to offer a smile or a hug because as Lucas taught us: “The small stuff is the big stuff.”
Lucas, who is an athlete and the Disability Advocacy Officer for the NHS Best Buddies Chapter, is a highly respected student leader at the high school, and he spoke eloquently before an assembly of 800 staff - no small task. He was a little nervous and joked that while it was daunting to speak to the faculty, it was even more challenging to be a New York Giants fan in Boston!
In his address to our staff, Lucas reflected on his life with hemiplegia—a profound paralysis on his right side caused by a traumatic injury in infancy. After he spoke we gave him a rousing and well deserved standing ovation for his thoughtful and moving remarks which included this observation:
"What I've learned is that everybody is carrying something. Mine you can see. Most people’s, you can't. The kid who seems checked out, the colleague who seems short with you—you have no idea what their week looks like. So that’s my whole ask: Be there for each other—students, teachers, staff—the small stuff is the big stuff." With clarity and wisdom, Lucas expressed his hope for us—a charge really—as we began a new school year.
In the days following that gathering, our Needham Public Schools community honored Lucas’s words by lifting up our students and each other after we learned of the tragic loss of an 11th grade student.
In classrooms throughout the district I witnessed young people and staff struggling to comprehend a student’s sudden death. I observed NHS Principal Sicotte lead restorative conversations with grief-stricken classmates and teammates. I watched teachers and staff support confused and upset students and colleagues even as they grappled with their own emotions. I was moved by seeing football teammates embrace in high school hallways sharing their heartbreak and loss.
These were small but powerful acts of care, compassion and grace.
And I have been so appreciative of the outpouring of support from the broader community, particularly local school districts who reached out to offer condolences, the parents who generously supplied pizza and snacks and the police officers from across the state who arrived with their service dogs to NHS—bringing comfort during an immensely difficult time.
Confronting the untimely death of a student is the hardest and most painful thing for an educator to do, and, unfortunately, it is simply not within our power to keep a tragedy like this away. The best we can do is to act with empathy, patience, resilience and hope.
The best we can do is to be there for each other and to offer a smile or a hug because as Lucas taught us: “The small stuff is the big stuff.”
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