In the new school year, the announcements came on as usual, but there was one that wasn’t usual. The announcement comes from State High’s principal, Laura Tobias. The key phrases are “Pause before you post”, “Leave it better than you found it”, “If it ain’t your business it ain’t your business”, and “If no one’s told you they love you today, we love you”. According to Tobias, the idea for the announcement came from another school principal, Hamish Brewer.
“He talked a lot about things that he would do in his school, and he talked about trauma — the trauma that kids have experienced through the pandemic — and kind of basically said something that I think we were all looking for. We were trying to create a plan and it was that people might not know what love is,” Tobias said.
During the pandemic, it was harder for students to connect due to remote learning. Tobias’s goal was to remind everyone that they are loved. It’s a good goal to have but not the easiest to achieve. The announcement played the same way everyday which undermined its message. Despite that, the announcement did prove to get the message across and positively affect students.
“We did miss a day or two and there were some emails that came in from students that were like, ‘Where’s the announcement today, like what happened?’” Danielle Ambrosia, assistant principal ninth grade, said.
The announcement had become daily, so that when it was missed students wondered where it went. There were students who missed the announcement and some who did not.
“You have those kids, we always do, that’ll probably be like, what is she doing? Oh here we go again, Mrs. Tobias and her reminder and her tips. It’s okay, but I think in some respect we’re impacting kids in a positive way and our faculty and staff as well.” Tobias said.
The announcement hasn’t only affected the students, but the staff too. While it’s a comforting message to hear, it has been repetitive. It can make it feel like there’s a lack of care when that is not the case.
“We’re genuine, we believe this, and that’s why we’re here,” Tobias said.
This care could be shown through more with some ideas for the future. One of those ideas is to involve seniors with making the announcement.
“I would like to bring in seniors and see if they would wanna be my special guest for the day and help me with that announcement. ‘Today’s special guest right is gonna help me with our four tips and our four reminders’ but we haven’t really talked about a plan cause right now everyone’s on the PA system,” Tobias explained.
Since everything has been over the PA system, Tobias is unsure about this idea. While unsure about doing it, it still is a good idea with potential. A special guest would make the announcement more unique everyday.
“I think that it’s kind of a special privilege and to be part of that may feel very special for some seniors. I’m hopeful that people start to look forward to it even more. It was really heartwarming to get those emails that said what happened,” Ambrosia said.
With seniors getting involved with doing the announcement, it would show more effort put into it. That effort would help in revealing that the Tobias announcement is more than a script to read. It would have a deeper connection with the school community and become more unique. If the idea doesn’t happen, the announcement will still be a good message for everyone to hear, but adding in that idea, it could become better.
