The fall of 2015 seemed to bring day after day of tragic news headlines reporting deaths, injuries and threats of and to children in school. We, three Chicago area moms of grade school children, started talking about our angst over the topic. Turns out crying over the morning news actually accomplishes little and was only making us feel sad and powerless. It was time to turn our emotions into action.
We knew our end-game: ensure all children could see school for what it should be – a safe haven for learning and growth. But our wish list didn’t stop with our children. We want our children’s teachers to be able to focus on educating and nurturing our childrens’ minds – not on an increased job responsibility to protect their students’ safety. As we continued to talk, many, many questions emerged:
What can we actually do?
What is already being done?
What would make a difference?
These questions led to the development of MAVinS (Mothers Against Violence In Schools). We recognize that there are certainly few parents who are for violence in schools, so the real opportunity for all of us is to come together and figure out how to change the story, reverse the headlines and keep our schools, teachers – and our children safer.
We welcome you to discover on our site what we’re up to and, please – drop us a line and let us know if you’d like to be involved, if you have a thought to throw our way or would like to partner on making our schools as safe as they can possibly be.
MAVinS 