Community Safety

garding their needs, but in doing this, she started to see some of the overparenting behaviors reflected in her interactions with her own kids.

“My job is to teach so they can do for themselves because one day I won’t be here, that’s good parenting. So I became a whole lot more compassionate once I realized I’m complicit in the problem I’m critiquing.” she

Message quells rumors

Mackenzie Higgins | Co-Editor-in-Chief

At 3:30 p.m. on Friday, April 21, Upper School students and families received a message from Upper School Director, Joe Ruggiero, and Director of Transportation, Safety and Security, Gene Paulauskas, regarding a recent rumored threat to the community.

Students and parents had brought concerns to the administration of a student threatening violence who possibly had access to firearms, but after an investigation, administrators concluded that there was no genuine threat to the school’s safety.

out is my passion,” says Julie Lythcott-Haims, this year’s Classes of ‘55 Residency Speaker.

Lythcott-Haims began her three day visit with a presentation to the Upper School community in the Juliet Nelson Auditorium wherein she replayed lessons from her most recent book, “Your Turn: How to be an Adult.” She combined tales from childhood and achieve success. Unfulfilled, Lythcott-Haims debated pivoting her career path to circle back to her desire to help people.

Throughout every season, Boys Tennis has had one rival: the weather.

Haims’ speech] did strike a chord with me,” says Matthew Sun ‘24 . “There were many relatable aspects of the speech and I think that I speak on behalf of many people [that there’s] many [expectations] and pressures put onto us by our parents.”

Disheartened by the stories from students, Lythcott-Haims encouraged them to communicate with their parents re- says.

Taking advantage of the rich resources and experiences Minneapolis has to offer can make learning experiences so much more impactful.

“I related to the idea about the tension between what other people want you to do and what you want to do,” Taara Verma ‘24 says. “What she had to say about reflecting on her own projections of what she wanted for her kids and being able to recognize that, I thought that was powerful.”

Ruggiero explains that the decision to notify the community of events and concerns like this “depends on the actual situational context.” He continues, “In this particular case, there was a lot of rumor and conversation that was going on, both among parents and among students about this issue. Much of the informa- tion was incorrect and also was causing a lot of stress and anxiety for obvious reasons because of the nature of what was being said.”

Most high school students take up sports or clubs as extracurriculars, but Piper Crow ‘24 and Sawyer Guider ‘25 both enjoy flying planes as a hobby.

“I think what happens is that it’s like a game of telephone,” Ruggiero adds. “Someone will say something and then someone will hear part of it or think they understand something someone was saying, [and] then tell three friends. Then the parents hear what’s going on and it snowballs into something that it never actually was. We sent something out because we wanted to try to stop [the rumors] as much as possible.”

Ruggiero, alongside the Upper School grade deans and Head of School, Anne Stavney, decided “it was much better for us to actually send out some communication to try to let people know that everything was okay and [the issue] had been investigated.”

Ruggiero notes that it’s important for students to speak with administrators when they hear about potential safety issues because the only way they can be addressed is if the administration is aware.