To the Editor:

I moved with my family to Newtown in July of 2012, and enrolled both of my children in Hawley School.  We found a ready home there and in our neighborhood in Sandy Hook. My older son, a fourth grader who, because of difficulties in finding a suitable elementary school in our previous South Carolina city, had attended three other elementary schools, knew that he was home when he came to Hawley.  There has not been one day since we moved here that we have not been grateful to be in Newtown.

After the events of 12/14, I worked with my son’s fourth grade teacher Lea Attanasio to found the Newtown Poetry Project, a program that brings 2nd – 6th grade children together with their parents to write poetry collaboratively and to build community.  We believe that writing collaboratively knits us closer together even as it tells us much about ourselves.  Three years later, it’s proven to be true, with new families joining our free program every spring.

Given the many acts of kindness, mercy, and strength that I have witnessed throughout my time in Newtown, it’s deeply concerning that the recommendation of the district’s committee to close Hawley School has divided the town.  Perhaps the fact that the recommendation chose one of four elementary schools for closure and redistricting made such divisions inevitable, but I am not ready to give up on the unity and courage that I have seen so often accomplish great things in and for this town.  I am strongly in favor of keeping all Newtown schools open; however, regardless of how each of us feels about the issue of school closings, we must remind ourselves that we do our best work together.  We have endured worse than this, and we are better than any one decision or obstacle we face.

At the Newtown Poetry Project, we ask students to write poems about their experiences of the world through sensory riddles, metaphor portraits, and collaborative poems written around the workshop table.  The first year, we invited students to write about places, too.  One of the children wrote this about Newtown:

Avengers assemble!  Okay, maybe not as cool, but Newtown has a superpower just the same.

We don’t have the Hulk, but we do have

25 year-old-guys playing dungeons and dragons, Cave Comics, Caraluzzi’s, Hawley School.

Sandy Hook Village, the arcade.

Our super power is staying together.

Newtown is home.

Our super power is staying together.  Newtown is home.  I encourage my neighbors and friends to get involved in the Board of Education’s decision-making process regardless of whether or not you have elementary-age children.  Listening to each other with love and respect will make us that much stronger.  As we have so often, I’m certain we can talk with each other in kindness and come to a decision we can all live with—together.

Sincerely,

Carol Ann Davis

28 Farm Field Ridge Road, Sandy Hook   June 11, 2015