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(Original with letterhead available as an attachment below.)
October 27, 2011
Dear Parents:
It has come to my attention that many AHS parents are hearing rumors concerning fights at our school this week, and I want to share some facts so you will have the correct information and be reassured that Alpharetta High School continues to be a safe school for our students.
While we recently did have a fight between a few students that received some attention, I want to assure you that student fighting is not a normal occurrence in our school. This particular altercation has received more attention because some students photographed the location of the incident with their cell phones and shared the images through social media.
As you can imagine, this has led to some concerns among students and parents about the safety of our school. I want to assure you that Alpharetta High School is a safe school, and that the level of student altercations we experience is minimal. While we absolutely do not condone fighting or any disruptive behavior – and do take any and all appropriate disciplinary action to discourage it – we recognize that the teenage years are when many students learn conflict management and how to manage their emotions. Therefore, our school has several popular clubs that aim to foster positive relationships among students, such as SAS (Students Among Students), SADD (Students Against Destructive Decisions), The Friends Club, and the Raider Ambassadors, to name only a few.
Unfortunately, sometimes students still make poor choices in how to resolve peer to peer conflict, which is why our practice at AHS is to have administrators and teachers assigned to supervise students in the morning, during lunch and during afternoon dismissal. Additionally, please know that during every class change we have teachers and administrators positioned throughout the school to ensure that students move through the hallways and to their classes in an organized and calm manner. When disruptions occur, we handle them immediately.
Coincidentally, this week our school just concluded participation in a “School Quality Review,” a two-day visit by a panel of external school improvement experts who examine our school intensively to determine our school’s strengths and the areas in which we can improve. I am very pleased to share that the School Quality Review team specifically commented in their draft report that Alpharetta High School has a positive climate and that students are extremely well behaved, respectful and exhibit mature behavior and attitudes to each other and to the faculty and staff.
Thank you for your continued support of our school, and please feel free to contact me or anyone on the administrative team with any concern involving your student or our school. I truly appreciate you reaching out to me with your questions.
Sincerely,
Shannon N. Kersey
Shannon N. Kersey
Principal
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