Mailbag - November 2015

Elizabeth Smalling says she and her fiancé, Mike Shulak, understand each other’s issues. “He gets me even when I drive him up the wall,” she says.

Encouraging article on mental health

Thank you so much for the excellent article featuring my daughter Elizabeth Smalling in the October 2015 issue [Not OK? That’s OK: Normalizing mental-health struggles, by Allie Burrow, October 2015]. She loved meeting with you and the process of writing the article. It is so important for the public to read an encouraging article on mental health – especially right now. What perfect timing. Elizabeth and I have traveled the state telling “our” story through a dialogue that she wrote. I have been on the NAMI [National Alliance on Mental Illness] Houston board for many years and have taught the NAMI Family to Family 12-week course for at least 10 years. Congratulations on a fine job.

Shelley Green

School likes School Buzz

Thanks so much. The student reporter, Celia [Houston], rushed to my office when she saw it posted [School Buzz: Outside of a Textbook: Seeing Greece and Rome, August 25, 2015], and she couldn’t have been more excited. Her parents were extremely proud as well. We’re trying to get it trending on our school Facebook pages and Twitter accounts! Thanks for giving our students an opportunity to engage with The Buzz in such a fun and interesting way.

Danny Kahalley, director of admissions, St. Thomas’ Episcopal School

Editor’s note:  Thanks for the feedback. We are happy to have Celia’s contributions to our School Buzz blog and look forward to more from her and the rest of your school’s team.

Rethink names on school signs

The school safety article in the August issue [Playing It Safe: Preventing crime on campus, by Andria Frankfort, and Safety Tool Box: Back-to-school guide for families, by Rania Mankarious] made me think (again!) about something that has been on my mind for years. And yours is the perfect forum. I live very near Mark Twain Elementary School and Pershing Middle School in Braeswood Place. Almost daily I see the school sign reading “Happy Birthday John Smith (e.g.)  September 5” or whatever child’s birthday it is.  I have also seen this at Kinkaid School in Memorial.

I feel this is a great opportunity for a predator to say to any child, “Who is John Smith? I have a birthday gift from his grandma for him.”  And then, John gets pointed out. And evil is on its way!

I know these messages are great moneymakers for the schools, but safety would be better served if perhaps only the first initial of the last name were used. Thank you.

Linda C. Schneider

Glad for article on school safety

I receive the magazine on a regular basis. To write a school safety and security article in a leisure-type magazine requires cleverness, guts and pioneership. Not to mention displaying it on the cover page and writing about it on [the] first 10 pages inside the magazine. Your article is timely and hits right on the bull’s eye. 

You all did a great job, first by giving it the priority it deserves, and second by using a positive language not to intimidate the readers. The article gives the affirmation to our children (and parents) that as responsible students and parents we are all involved in this and there are ample tools out there to help us all to minimize and curtail school violence and also terrorism. It is our job to be prepared regardless of our backgrounds and regardless of the threat. It is all about protecting our children. 

Hanan “Richter” Yadin

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