Kindness Is Contagious at Kent Primary School

Every day this month at Kent Primary School started with a dose of kindness.  

When they see a classmate being kind, students of all grades submit kindness “Snippets” to a “Kindness Jar” across from the school office. Each day, Principal Vincent Fino picks a few snippets – or notes that describe the good deeds they’ve witnessed-- to read during morning announcements.  

On a recent day, Fino told the students about these good deeds:  

“I saw Joey show kindness today by letting me play with him.”  

“I saw Riley show kindness today by giving me a tissue when I was crying.”   

I saw Michael show kindness by helping Arthur up when he fell.”  

This is not just a Thanksgiving holiday effort. It is part of the district’s philosophy of Positive Behavior Intervention and Supports, or PBIS. Administrators celebrate students when they show good character or kindness. It is a strategy they use to make good behavior contagious, and it is a central part of the Carmel 6 Cs. 

The KPS PTO also set an example of kindness. On the Monday before Thanksgiving, the group provided breakfast and hot coffee for the bus drivers to thank them for getting the children safely to school every day.  

“Is that hot coffee?” Driver Robert Reilly asked when he spotted the coffee urn. “This is so nice of the PTO.”  

Reilly has been driving a bus for the Carmel Central School District for more than two decades and said he has seen countless acts of kindness over the years.