Integrity...an update! WPS 5-1-23

Our district wide core values within the acronym of SPIRIT are Safety, Perseverance, Inclusion, Respect, Integrity and Teamwork.  During SPIRIT lessons within our schools, the definition of integrity includes doing the right thing, even when no one is watching.  

Recently, some of our students have been sharing examples of scenarios that they have witnessed or experienced involving unacceptable behavior by their peers when adults are not around—both in school settings and out in the community at large. Integrity is not as straightforward as safety and teamwork or even respect, which are some of our other core values.  We need to spend more time exploring what this characteristic and quality looks like as there are fewer examples of it in the social media feeds that many of our children are exposed to on a regular basis. Some of these behaviors, both by our students and by the social media influencers that they follow, are unacceptable due to the biased and or prejudicial content they contain. The intent of a student using this biased language or even their active engagement in sharing or liking a social media post might not be to do harm, but the impact is damaging and hurtful. 

As we venture further into the spring and closer to the end of the school year, I wanted to take the opportunity to appeal to all of our families to take the time to have additional conversations with your children regarding their choices as they tend to spend more time with their friends in the better weather and often in less structured situations.  Most of us strongly believe that our kids would never (fill in the blank), but the reality is that all children, at times, make choices that can surprise us when not under adult supervision. 

Our schools are reflections of the communities we serve. All members of our community and guests that share our spaces are deserving of a safe, respectful environment in which they feel a sense of belonging. We invite you, families and caregivers, to join in this discussion with our young people to help reinforce the importance of integrity and how their behavior can directly impact others. As a community, we know that there is more work to be done; we reaffirm our commitment to the ongoing work of anti-racism and to creating anti-bias spaces in which our young people can thrive and be their best selves.

Sincerely,

Chris

Christopher Chew, Ed.D

Superintendent

Westford Public Schools