OUR SCHOOLS

Abuse Prevention Plan

Confidence and Courage are Contagious

OUR SCHOOLS – VISION and MISSION

OUR VISION – WHY

Develop confidence and wisdom within individuals so they prevent needless suffering and flourish. Prepared with a vision of continual improvement and love, people live purposeful and meaningful lives which contribute to a safe and successful community.

Where there is no vision, the people perish.

OUR MISSION – WHAT

Create a culture of confidence – so we never become victims or perpetrators of abuse.

Caring for ourselves and one another so abuse has no place, and develop a strong mental fortitude to cope with difficulties which inevitably challenge each of us.

Personally prevent and overcome physical, verbal, mental, and sexual abuse. Including: exploitation, objectification, oppression, suicide, school shootings and human trafficking – purposeful injury of any kind.

OUR STEWARDSHIP – WHO

Care for ourselves, add our friends, and include our enemies.

Rise above abuse so it won’t harm me, and unify so it won’t harm you either.

Perpetrators of violence hate themselves and the world. The simplest way to personally prevent abuse, is don’t be the abuser – love yourself and the world around you.

OUR LOCATION – WHERE

MY SCHOOL AND YOURS

Expand the vision to any school who will share the same mission.

OUR TIMING – WHEN

Now and continually – make it part of our culture and our DNA.

OUR METHOD – HOW

AWARE and CARE – Principles and Actions
Be aware of ourselves – our thoughts and emotions to prevent abusing ourselves or others, and aware of our surroundings so we are not abused or otherwise exploited. It is impractical to think all abuse can be prevented but we can care enough to reduce the risk, and give relief and comfort to those people who it does happen to.

HOW IT

CAME TO BE

My family had been discussing how we can support OPERATION UNDERGROUND RAILROAD. OPERATION UNDERGROUND RAILROAD rescues and provides aftercare for human trafficking victims (slaves) from all around the world. Most rescue cases are child sex slaves. Other than sending money, our family didn’t know how we could help. This cruelty also led us to think about school shootings. My dad made the comment, “The simplest way to personally prevent a school shooting is don’t be the killer.” Meaning, do what we can control.

We don’t want violence or abuse of any kind to happen to us, our friends, or even our worst enemy. This includes: physical, verbal, mental, and sexual abuse, exploitation, objectification, oppression, suicide, school shootings, and human trafficking – purposeful injury of any kind. The topic of abuse is uncomfortable, but it can only be eliminated when we tell the truth and call it what it is – acts or neglect done in order to feel superior to someone in some way.

We want to do something useful and practical. We don’t think walkouts are useful or lasting, and petitioning politicians to make more laws seems ineffective because criminals have no regard for the law anyway. Asking for more laws also ignores our individual responsibility and gives away our individual power. Others have tried this and it seems to create more division and contention in our society. We hope individuals will take care good of themselves and then each other, which will unify our school communities. This is the reason for the name: OUR SCHOOLS. We want to focus on what we have in common and what each of us can control. Abuse affects us all, and we all can help prevent it.

We Broke It Down

Perpetrators of violence and abusers of all sorts hate themselves and the world around them. If we love ourselves and the people around us, we won’t be the victim or the perpetrator.

How do we learn to love ourselves and others?

Recognizing our own value and the value of others, and increasing that value, gives us something of importance to love. People who are love-able to themselves and others, live with purpose and meaning.

How do we find purpose and live a meaningful life?

In order to find purpose and meaning, we first need enough confidence and trust in ourselves to search, believing purpose and meaning are possible and available in our lives.

How do we gain confidence and trust in ourselves?

To gain confidence and trust in ourselves, we need the desire and capabilities which come from developing habits and skills. Knowing everything we do matters drives us to continually improve, which builds our confidence and self-worth.

How do we develop habits and skills?

Habits and skills are made up of smaller steps – systems or processes that each of us can do.

How do we create systems – such small steps where we can’t possibly fail?

Everything we do is a process or system – a series of small steps. Think of and focus on what works and then break it into the simplest sequence of steps. Practicing these steps over and over will become automatic over time with much less effort, therefore becoming a habit and skill.

Choices support and connect it all.

Our simplest tasks – those each of us can do without possibly failing, are only completed or neglected by our choice. If a task is completely and fully physically impossible, it is not within our ability to choose and we have no control or responsibility over it. Otherwise a task is accomplished or blocked only by our choice. Who we are is built on the foundation of our choices, with thanks for the freedom and ability to make those choices.

Principles and Actions

We asked ourselves: What is true and what can we do? That’s when it came to us, the two simple things we can control. Be aware of ourselves – our thoughts and emotions to prevent abusing ourselves or others, and aware of our surroundings so we are not abused or otherwise exploited. It is impractical to think all abuse can be prevented but we can care enough to reduce the risk, and give relief and comfort to those people who it does happen to. AWARE and CARE seems to be a fitting theme. Preventing needless suffering will begin to give purpose and meaning to our lives. If students are individuals of great value and character, who are confident and strong, these terrible things can be prevented.

The following plan consists of principles we consider self-evident truths and sustainable actions we all can do. We hope this will create a culture and a vision where we all can find a place to be involved and participate.

– Sienna and Breven

Dedicated to our Grandma Kaye.

We never knew you, but your life and what you taught continues to shape our family and OUR SCHOOLS.