As our whānau gathered today to pay our respects to the Muslim community I could not help but shed a tear of immense gratitude that all our babies were safe.
This time last week was the makings of a perfect storm. Buses descending on Te Pā from all directions, parents arriving to pick up tamariki, conflicting messages from MOE and police, the Kaiurungi and whole senior management team off-site and a gunman just two blocks away from Te Pā ....
Nothing could have prepared any of us for what unfolded in the city on Friday, 15 March 2019. In less than 30 minutes one person wreaked havoc on the Muslim community and altered not just a city but a whole nation. Calls to stand with the Muslim community have united a country that previously turned a blind eye to "everyday" racism. Amongst the horror and grief has risen a national consciousness - what have we done/not done that may have prevented this happening here. It has exposed vulnerabilities in our society and more closer to home, at Te Pā, it has exposed vulnerabilities in our own processes.
Every school is required to have a Lockdown Policy and procedure and we are right now reviewing ours which would be fair to say fell well short of preparing us for a city wide lock down and we are not alone. This is being treated as top priority by all schools across the nation. We are unable to publish these procedures for obvious reasons but we will be calling a hui for whānau to ensure you also understand the lockdown procedures within the next few weeks.
In the meantime Te Tautarinui acknowledges all our kaiārahi and kaimahi for doing what they do best, putting the welfare of our pononga first and looking after them until the very last one was safely sent on their way home. It is also right that I especially acknowledge Tash and Tessa in Te Rito who worked under intense pressure, fielding phone calls from anxious and upset parents and maintaining contact with Tauira (who was driving back from dropping off pononga to Living Springs for their leadership wananga), kaihautū (who were on buses from the Square, museum and library), staff both on-site and off and the police - who seemed to not have us on their radar at all. They responded to the situation with calm and were very clear in their communications despite conflicting messages from MOE and police, pressure from parents wanting to take kids home and others questioning why we were releasing them.
So we are clear, the comms they put out were on advice from the police. We have initiated discussions directly with the police to find out why we did not receive notification from them of the lockdown; why there was no police presence at Te Pā at all when we are in such close proximity; and why they advised it was ok to release kids to their parents while the city wide lockdown was still in force.
In the meantime I know our kaimahi and kaiārahi have worked extraordinarily hard this week to settle our pononga and surround them in tika, pono and aroha. It was unusually quiet, calm and peaceful as we sat with our pononga under the trees and two minutes silence turned into many more minutes of silent prayer and gratitutude for what we have.
Kia hora te marino, kia whakapapa pounamu te moana, kia tere te kārohirohi i mua i tō huarahi.
May peace be widespread, may the sea glisten like greenstone, and may the shimmer of light guide you on your way.