When the Bell Rings Heavy: Why Emotional Learning Must Start Early

Class bells rang at 8:55 this morning… but unfortunately in a different tune. A tune of grief, uncertainty and deep loss.

The violent altercation at North Forsyth High School in Winston-Salem is something we are all too familiar with: another set of youth going emotionally unsupervised. Another moment where unspoken feelings, unmanaged conflict, and unchecked stress escalated faster than a bystander or adult could intervene.

As students return to class to finish their midterms strong, they have experienced a peer’s life lost right in the hallways they expected to feel safe to learn, explore, and discover their path forward. They have been forever altered. And a school community now finds itself grappling with the kind of heartbreak no parent, educator, or student should ever have to carry.

As the community mourns, we must sit with a sobering truth:
We cannot continue raising children who reach adolescence without the emotional tools they need to navigate conflict, pressure, and pain.

A High School Tragedy Rooted in Elementary-Era Gaps

Events like this don’t begin in a hallway. They begin years earlier, long before teenagers ever step foot into a high school.

They begin when:

• A child feels overwhelmed but doesn’t have language for their feelings

• Small conflicts go unresolved because a child hasn’t learned how to repair

• Emotional red flags get missed - not out of neglect, but because children often mask hurt with behavior

Without early guidance, these moments accumulate and by the time a child becomes a teenager, the cracks in emotional development can widen into dangerous fractures.

This is why soft skills cannot be introduced in middle or high school alone. By then, it is a response, not prevention.

Why Soft Skills Belong at the Center of Every Grade-School Curriculum

At Yellow Door Academy, we define soft skills as the human abilities that make learning possible: behavior, character, emotional understanding, social navigation, and personal presence. Soft skills are not extras, they are not “character lessons” tucked into special events. They are life skills and they must be explicitly taught, practiced and reinforced from early childhood onward.

Soft skills equip children to:

1. Name emotions before acting on them

Because a child who can say “I’m frustrated” is less likely to express frustration through harm.

2. Resolve conflict without escalation

Students learn language for compromise, repair, and boundaries.

3. Self-regulate when overwhelmed

Breathing, pausing, and grounding become practical tools—not abstract ideas.

4. Build empathy and perspective-taking

Children begin to understand that peers are not enemies; they are humans with feelings too.

5. Ask for help when situations feel out of control

Asking for support becomes a sign of strength, not shame.

These skills build internal safety, the kind that no metal detector or security measure can replicate.

Schools Are Emotional Ecosystems: Prevention Starts in K–5

A kindergarten tearing up over sharing crayons. A second-grader frustrated because recess ended too soon. A fourth-grader embarrassed by a mistake in front of friends.

These are emotional crossroads.

Every early moment is an opportunity to build emotional intelligence or miss it. And we understand that missed opportunities become patterns, patterns become habits and habits become outcomes. This is why Yellow Door advocates for soft skills to be treated with the same seriousness as reading fluency and math foundations. When we nurture emotional literacy, we nurture safety.

A Tragedy That Demands More Than Grief, It Calls for Change

The community surrounding North Forsyth High School is hurting and that hurt deserves space. It deserves compassion, counseling and care. But moments like this must also propel us forward. We honor this loss by asking hard questions and choosing better responses.

• How do we make emotional development a core part of grade school?

• How do we equip teachers and families with tools to identify emotional distress early?

• How do we ensure children never grow up “emotionally unsupervised”?

These questions guide our mission at Yellow Door Academy.

Our curriculum is built on a simple belief: If we want safer high schools tomorrow, we must teach emotional intelligence in grade school today.

OFFICIAL STATEMENT FROM YELLOW DOOR ACADEMY

Yellow Door Academy grieves with the students, families and staff of North Forsyth High School.

We are heartbroken by the loss of a student’s life and the traumatic impact on the entire school community. Moments like these remind us that emotional wellness is not supplemental to education; it is foundational. We remain committed to ensuring that every child, from kindergarten through adolescence, gains access to the soft skills that promote safety, empathy and self-regulation.

Our programs that serve the entire family, from childhood to ever-evolving adults, were created for this very purpose: to give children the emotional and social tools they need to navigate their world with confidence, compassion, and calm.

We stand with North Forsyth. We stand with the families. And we stand firm in our belief that early emotional education saves lives.

Call to Action: Join Us in Building Emotionally Safe Schools

At Yellow Door, we are committed to transforming classrooms into emotionally intelligent learning environments. 

To school leaders, parents, nonprofits, and community partners:

Now is the time to act.

✔ Bring soft-skills education into your school or district
✔ Equip teachers with tools for emotional instruction
✔ Provide students with daily opportunities to practice emotional literacy
✔ Partner with us to make emotional safety a foundational part of learning

Learn more about implementing Yellow Door soft-skills curriculum and partner with us to bring emotional intelligence into your school.

Because every child deserves to be emotionally equipped and every community deserves schools where the bells ring in peace, not grief.