The Riverwalk Roar

Happy Sunday, Pride!

I hope everyone is doing well and had a wonderful weekend. We had a busy weekend at Riverwalk as our cross country team attended the Northwestern High School "Trojan Invitational," our swimmers competed at the Fort Mill High School "Upstate Invite," and our middle school volleyball team spent their Saturday at the Rock Hill High School "Bearcat Invitational." Shout out to our high school principal and athletic director, Mr. Ball, who managed to make it to all three sites to cheer on our athletes.

For those who know me, you can probably guess where I spent my Saturday . . . at Fort Mill High School at the swim meet. I was the meet referee for the Upstate Invite, which means I had a lot of time to watch our Lions, along with 500 other swimmers, compete from a front-row seat. Eight hours on deck gives you a lot of time to think, and my mind kept drifting back to a conversation I had earlier in the week with a parent who's newer to Riverwalk.

She and her husband reached out to me directly, not to complain, but just to talk something through, something they'd noticed and wanted my perspective on. What stuck with me was her reasoning: she'd seen people online getting worked up over things that, in her words, could have just been a phone call. The "let's bombard their email" energy didn't sit right with her. Not because people shouldn't have concerns, but because it felt at odds with the kind of place she believed Riverwalk to be. If we're really as accessible as we say we are, she said, why does it so often go there first? I didn't have a perfect answer for her, other than to admit I wish I had one myself, but it's been on my mind ever since.

Our kids are always watching us . . . how we handle disagreement, how we treat people we're frustrated with, how we ask for what we need. That's true at home, and I believe it's true in this community too.

Here's the thing, at Riverwalk, myself, our administrators, and our teachers are genuinely accessible. A call, an email, a walk down to the office, that door is open, always has been. There's a line from The Four Agreements, a book that our administrators and office team read a few years back, that I come back to often, the idea of being impeccable with your word and not making assumptions about what someone else knows or intends. I think that applies here just as much as it does at home. And that's exactly what we're trying to teach our students to do for themselves. We want them to become self-advocates, to raise their hand and say "I'm struggling with this," to go talk to a teacher directly instead of staying quiet or venting to a friend, to ask for what they need instead of hoping someone notices. That's a life skill, not just a school skill.

So if we want our kids to learn how to advocate for themselves with confidence and directness, we have to show them what that looks like. If something's on your mind, reach out. I would so much rather have one honest conversation with you than talk everywhere except to the person who can actually help. That's the kind of community — and the kind of example — I want us to be for our Lions.

Let’s have a great week, Lions!

In Pride and Purpose

~Dr. Compton