Sandy Hook nonprofit’s message embraced in New Hampshire
NEWTOWN — Scarlett Lewis believes that the negative thinking at the heart of bullying, teenage substance abuse and school violence can be transformed by teaching kids how to choose love in any circumstance.
The idea came to her after her 6-year-old son, Jesse, was killed with 19 classmates and six educators at Sandy Hook School in 2012.
“It occurred to me that this whole tragedy happened because of a negative thought in Adam Lanza’s head,” said Lewis, referring to the 20-year-old shooter. “Negative thoughts can be changed into loving thoughts.”
The state of New Hampshire apparently agrees.
A key recommendation in a recent report by a statewide school safety task force is to implement an emotional development curriculum promoted by Lewis’ foundation, the Jesse Lewis Choose Love Movement.
“New Hampshire will provide a backbone of support through Scarlett’s program,” said New Hampshire Gov. Chris Sununu in a prepared statement. “We are adding these proactive and preventative measures not only for violence, but for addiction, suicide, and the toxic anxiety that has plagued our schoolchildren for too long.”
New Hampshire becomes the first state to embrace the curriculum, known as social and emotional learning, or SEL. It is a decades-old concept with a body of research behind it that Lewis has been promoting in school districts across the country for several years.
The classroom program, which her foundation provides at no cost, focuses on character values of courage, gratitude, forgiveness and something Lewis calls compassion in action.
“Social and emotional learning is all about awareness and mindfulness,” Lewis said Friday. “If you think about the thoughts that go through your head, you realize, ‘I do have a lot of negative thoughts, and I do have a choice about what I think about.’ ”
The goal of the program is not only to reduce self-destructive behavior in school, but to promote better attendance, improved test scores and higher graduation rates.
By teaching students how to manage their emotions and make social connections, the program builds resilience students can use to overcome the root causes of red flag behavior in school, Lewis said.
“In the research teachers who have used social and emotional learning say that there is a sense of peace in class, because kids get along,” Lewis said. “When they go out to the playground, instead of dividing up in pairs, they all play together, because they have a common language that unites the school.”
New Hampshire’s plan to implement the SEL program represents a big step forward for the Lewis foundation, which is among a handful of homegrown nonprofits that launched in the aftermath of the worst crime in Connecticut history.
Other nonprofits such as the gun violence prevention organizations Newtown Action Alliance and Sandy Hook Promise already have national profiles.
“This is some of our biggest news yet,” Lewis said. “Now that social and emotional learning is part of the school safety dialogue, New Hampshire is the model, and the pressure will be on other states.”