March 14th at Madison Public Schools

I would like to give an initial update to our school community on the events of today in our schools in response to the "walkout" movement. However, I would first like to thank the students at Daniel Hand High School, and at Polson Middle School, for their meaningful contributions and design of the day. As I said earlier, our students would represent our community well…and they did not disappoint!

Our "walkout" was a "walkout of classrooms" for the reasons stated in an earlier correspondence. Beyond that condition, the entire event was developed and designed by students. It was truly a student-driven movement today. And I suspect, it was just the beginning.

There will be more information forthcoming regarding the details of the program that the students created. In the interim, there are some images posted to our Facebook page.

It was estimated that close to 70% of Hand students were engaged in the program today, while more than 80% participated at Polson. Students had a choice regarding their participation. In addition, following Senator Murphy's kickoff address, the students had access to State Rep. Noreen Kokoruda, as well as the ability to post messages, write letters, while also sharing their thoughts with The Source and The Hartford Courant. All of these actions were in keeping with our priorities of amplifying student voice, keeping the events age-appropriate, and ensuring the safety of our students. I am proud to report that these values were maintained at all of our schools, K-12.

We intend to follow up with Representative Courtney and Senator Kennedy, in addition to continuing to work with our student body in the coming days, weeks and months.

You can anticipate an additional update, however, in the interim I wanted to inform the school community that the day was a great success…and the entire success can be attributed to our students.

Thomas Scarice
Superintendent of Schools
Madison Public Schools