Building a Culture of Support in Your School

May 31, 2023
Blog

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4 minutes

Molly Hudgens

Molly Hudgens is a school counselor, a Congressional Medal of Honor Citizen Honors recipient and author of Saving Sycamore; The School Shooting That Never Happened. Molly, also a nationally recognized Safe & Sound Schools speaker, shared her thoughts with us on how school personnel can contribute to cultivating a supportive school culture.

“Who would you go to here at school if you were worried, scared, upset, concerned, or sick?”

At face value, that seems like a question a school counselor might ask a group of students when presenting on the support system found in their school. Actually, this is a question I ask our staff every year during our beginning of the year professional development when we talk about our school safety and crisis plan. It is meant to make each individual adult on our campus consider our school personnel through the eyes of the students we teach. Would they be the staff member a child would name? If not, then I ask them to consider why this is the case.

“Trust, like respect, is an earned attribute”

You see, in a crisis, anyone (whether they are an adult or a child), will feel compelled to reach out to the person they instinctively trust. Trust, like respect, is an earned attribute which is forged through many conversations and the expression of true concern by the individual in whom someone has placed their trust. A school’s environment and culture are supported (or eroded) by the staff with whom students interact each day.

EVERY adult stakeholder on campus–from the cafeteria staff to the front office administrative assistants, the custodians to the librarians, and the maintenance department to the principal–affect school climate. If we ignore that fact and assume only certified staff are responsible for this support system, we fail to see the larger picture.

Working together to support students

At our school we make a valiant effort to recognize the strengths of each staff member and to utilize those strengths to work with students who need mentors, tutors, or just positive adult role models. My teammate in the counseling department, Matthew, has the patience of the saints. I have never seen him lose his cool or express outward anger. Because of this, he is the perfect person to de-escalate frustrated adolescents who are on the verge of acting out physically in anger.

“While some schools would see these students as needing a visit to the Student Resource Officer, we view our staff through a different lens.”

We never use our SRO to play the role of the “heavy” because Officer Nick’s strengths lie not only in his knowledge of the law. He is also a father to two middle-school-aged children. Because of this, we sometimes meet with students together to both offer support and to share what the consequences of a students’ actions might entail.

Our support team doesn’t end there. We have our amazing nurse, Heather, who joins me to meet with students as well. She can recognize symptoms of medical issues of which I might not be familiar, and our assistant principal, Mandi, often refers students to the counseling department where she transitions them from a disciplinary situation to one that allows for them to rebuild and learn from their mistakes. And, friends, that’s just our admin team.

Looking beyond the admin team

We have a P.E. educator and coach who is also a grandfather. He takes students on walks and has them help him change the marquee sign. This gives him time to connect with them and give those who are struggling a chance to share their challenges. Then there’s Miss Vicki, our head custodian, who greets every child she passes with a huge smile and a kind word. She could build a positive culture on her own.

And when it comes to hiring new staff members, well, we hire our own. Many of our staff members are former students. Why? Because they were supported at our school and understand the effect that support had on them. We grew our own, why not let them continue to grow where they were planted? This gives our school the opportunity to be a family rather than just an educational institution. It is not only a place that welcomes you back, but also hires you on to continue the tradition you experienced as a student.

Building culture through trust

Building a school culture is easy when the people within your walls truly love and care about each other. It’s more than “relationship building,” it’s investing in those around you who share your same mission. Education, after all, is a calling, not just a profession. In crisis we are called to recognize the helpers. In building culture, we are called to find the trustees–those who are dedicated to being trusting people so that those around them believe they are safe, cared about, and loved.