Choose Love Comes to New Hampshire

After the tragic Parkland High School shootings, New Hampshire’s Governor Chris Sununu formed the School Safety Preparedness Task Force. The task force report released in early July contains 59 recommendations for safer schools such as secure lock boxes, active-shooter training, tip lines, panic buttons and “see something, say something” programs. A recommendation of particular interest to school counselors recognizes the importance of social/emotional learning as part of promoting safer schools. In the July 1 edition of the New Hampshire Sunday News, the governor announced that New Hampshire would be the first state to promote a social/emotional learning curriculum state wide. The Governor is quoted as saying, “I’ve had the honor of working with Scarlett Lewis, who is the mother of Jesse Lewis, victim of the Sandy Hook elementary school shooting. She is a national leader in social/emotional learning and creator of the Choose Love movement.”
 
Jesse Lewis would have been 12 years old this summer. The morning before he left for school, he wrote three words on his kitchen chalkboard: “nurturing, healing, love.” He lost his life that day in one of the worst mass shootings in U.S. history. Since that day in December 2012, Scarlett Lewis began creating the Jesse Lewis Choose Love movement. Scarlett believes that we can teach children to choose love.
 
The four units of Choose Love are courage + gratitude + forgiveness + compassion in action = love. The content is based on research on emotional intelligence, mindfulness/focused attention, post-traumatic growth, resilience, and neuroscience and SEL. The Jesse Lewis Choose Love website has all the background information about Choose Love for teachers and counselors. The educator’s guide has a special section for school counselors. The program is written by educators for educators; however, the authors believe that “the content of this program will resonate strongly with school counselors as it aligns perfectly with the heart and soul of what they do every day in their essential roles at the school and with their meaningful and impactful interactions with a multitude of students.” The guide further states that the program aligns with the ASCA Mindsets & Behaviors, “which makes it especially effective and easily woven into your school counseling program” (p. 38, Choose Love Educator Guide).
 
The website, www.jesselewischooselove.org, has all the resources you need to integrate Choose Love into your school counseling program. All the materials and curriculum are free for download on the website including pre- and post-surveys. The governor has appointed Shannon Desilets as the state ambassador for Choose Love. Shannon has been working with the families of Sandy Hook for over five years. New Hampshire school counselors will be hearing more about Choose Love through the NHSCA website, newsletters and annual conference.
 
Celia M. Slason is past-president of NHSCA.