In response to the constant backlash teachers at Clark-Pleasant schools are receiving this fall, a group of parents decided to show their appreciation for the educators.
Clark Pleasant Cares for Teachers, a private Facebook group with nearly 250 members, was started by Lynn Fahy. Fahy said she made the group after becoming irritated with the amount of negativity coming from parents of Clark-Pleasant students in different Facebook groups.
When the state announced in June that masks would be recommended for unvaccinated students, about 50 people attended a Clark-Pleasant school board meeting to protest.
Two Clark-Pleasant schools require masks: Break-O-Day Elementary and Clark-Pleasant Middle School. The change from the initial corporation-wide mask optional policy was announced Aug. 16.
Following these announcements, many parents took to Facebook to criticize the decisions, Fahy said.
“Someone posted, ‘tell your students not to wear a mask,’ and that just took me by surprise,” Fahy said. “And I start thinking about those poor teachers, those poor staff members, what they must be going through.”
Fahy has two children that have graduated from Whiteland Community High School, along with one currently in their junior year at the high school and a granddaughter in elementary school. Fahy also graduated from Whiteland in 1988.
When the Facebook parent groups Fahy was part of became increasingly negative, she decided to leave them.
Then, while nursing a hairline fracture in her foot, she took up creating a new, more positive one to support teachers at the school system. The group gained over 200 members overnight, she said.
But, the group isn’t just for talking about appreciating teachers. Their current mission is to create care packages for all 955 staff members. These packages include pens, post-it notes, index cards, hand sanitizer, stress balls and a personalized note for each staff member. The cost to put together the packages is between $10 to $15 each.
The group intends to deliver the packages before fall break, which begins Oct. 15, in the hope of giving teachers a nice send-off before they get a few days of relaxation.
“I’ve actually had teachers reach out to me, telling me how thankful they are,” Fahy said, adding that one school staff member said the group brought tears to her eyes.
The Clark Pleasant Cares for Teachers Facebook group is a way for parents to show the educators that their work is worthwhile.
Though the Facebook group is private, anyone can join, Fahy said. The group is private to try to deter anyone coming to the group to spread negativity.
The group has 12 moderators, with each being in charge of collecting or making gift bags for teachers at each respective school in the corporation. Members of the group can either put together the care packages themselves, or donate to the GoFundMe created for the initiative. As of Sept. 3, the fundraising goal has been exceeded for the campaign.
Brandi Spreight is a moderator responsible for all gifts going to her school, Pleasant Crossing Elementary.
Spreight works as the media clerk at the elementary school’s library. There is a general feeling of discouragement among many of the educators she works with right now, she said.
“They want to do the right thing for the kid, but there’s feedback from everywhere,” Spreight said. “And so I wanted to be able to be a part of encouraging them and just finding some small way to make everybody smile and feel appreciated.”
The increase in parent involvement may be due to parents overhearing online courses during the pandemic and feeling more entitled to be in control of their child’s education, she said.
“I think when everything was trying to go back to normal that the parents still felt very, like, ‘I want something done this way and not that way,’” Spreight said.
Spreight said parents spoke out against SEL, or social and emotional learning. This comes from parents misunderstanding the curriculum, she said.
“We’re definitely just trying to give them tools (to regulate their emotions) but I think parents think that it’s something totally different, that we’re trying to brainwash their children,” Spreight said.
Teachers are dealing with constant criticism from parents, students who have been told to disobey rules like mask requirements, and the every day issues of helping students throughout the day and returning home to their own families, she said.
“It’s just a lot to put on a person’s plate mentally to try to be putting out all these fires and make sure everyone’s happy and going to be successful,” Spreight said.
