“Run,” screamed 6 year-old Jesse Lewis after Adam Lanza stopped to reload his automatic weapon in his first-grade classroom. When Adam Lanza reloaded his gun, he shot the remaining children in the classroom.

However, Jesse’s final act of courage saved nine lives that day in Newtown, Conn.  

Before Jesse’s funeral, his brother J.T. and his mother Scarlett Lewis discovered two messages from Jesse. They read, “Norurting, Helinn, Love”[sic] and “Have a lot of fun.”  

Those words inspired Ms. Lewis to create a movement to help end school violence.

“I believe that if the shooter had been able to give and receive nurturing, healing love, the tragedy never would have happened,” said Ms. Lewis in an interview for “Today Magazine.”

The Jesse Lewis Choose Love Movement is a downloadable curriculum created for educators by educators to promote social emotional learning (SEL). “It teaches children how to understand and manage emotions, decision-making skills, and awareness of themselves and others,“ Ms. Lewis said.

Ms. Lewis said the program teaches people how to be compassionate. This is a skill that needs to be learned, and when students have these skills, grades and test scores improve. According to Ms. Lewis, this is also the “number-one proactive mental health initiative we have.”

This school year, PA is tuning into the Jesse Lewis Choose Love Movement curriculum and implementing it slowly throughout the building. The spree of school shootings in the U.S. brings an urgency to the initiative. Headmaster Mr. Famulari said he believes this curriculum is worthwhile and an invaluable resource for students.

“If it’s done right, the positive results will be instantaneous,” said Mr. Famulari.

The movement is a “preventative and proactive approach to reduce and eliminate school violence and bullying,” said Ms. Lewis, adding that Choose Love is the number one way to ensure that children have a safe school environment.

While the program works best when the entire school participates, small changes can lead to big changes, said Shannon Desilets, Program Coordinator for N.H. Ms. Desilets is a PA alumni and a post-trauma specialist in addition to her work as Program Coordinator. She said she has “wiped many tears off the cheeks of those affected by the Sandy Hook shooting” and she never wants to have to wipe those kind of tears ever again.

“A Spartan is courageous. A Spartan is a leader. A Spartan protects,” Ms. Desilets said. “You all have a chance now to be an example of courageous leaders for the rest of the state.”