I am working on this topic. So much to say. When I return next week, I'll get into this a lot more.
Children are my life. Always have been. They are our future, and that someone could so callously do as this man did is unfathomable. Everyday I come to work, I thank God my little ones are safe and pray for their continued safety. I will post more, but as I said, there's lots to discuss and lots I want to say. For the moment though, I will wait and continue to pray for the families and souls of the lost innocents.
EDIT:
The Victims :(
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| Spencer Platt/Getty Images |
The Victims :(
It's odd that I'm updating this today of all days because I just found out that President Obama is going to be honoring the six women that were slain by giving their families 18 presidential citizen medals.
I honestly don't even know what to say really. There's so many things I could discuss, and will eventually get to in different posts/episodes. Things like censorship, gun law enforcement and more psychological help are just some the things that come to mind. There are so many underlying issues..
Working with kids made this awful occurrence really hard to take. I know my friends and family members who work in schools were actually somewhat more fearful to go to work for the first few days after, but they feel much more responsible for their kids safety now more than ever. We've all always felt like we are their guardians but this has made us all the more protective. My sister, mother, best friend and I have all discussed and cried over this at length. We can't fathom the emptiness the town/school feels from their loss, but we, along with all the other people, send our heart out to the families.
At the place I work in, we didn't discuss the occurrence with the kids unless they brought it up to us. It's sickening that children so young were targeted and I wish there was more information as to why the sicko did what he did. How can you take the lives of innocent children that know nothing? That hadn't yet experienced the things that life has to offer. How could anyone look at child and openly hate them that much? Was it hate that fueled this psychopath? WHAT was it that made this person do something so heinous?!
There has been several incidents like this before and I wont even get into them because we all know which the are and we don't need to go into them.... but this was so much more awful because of the amount of loss. Because of the fact that these were babies! Because of the fact that the adults slain sacrificed their lives for children that weren't even theirs! In a world were everyone is seemingly uninterested in anyone but themselves, they proved that we educators are committed to our students.
So many people assume that we are mean or just want to drive facts into the kids, and that we don't care for them except as students. I can't tell you how FAR from the truth that is. I call my students my children, as "weird" as it is to them, they know they are my children because I don't have any of my own. I can't imagine my life without my 500+ babies1 They make my life worthwhile. As often as they irritate us, as often as we get angry that they can't follow simple directions.... they are our hearts and our lives. They are the future and if we didn't care, we wouldn't be doing the jobs that we do. We are their second family, they are ours and though the moments they are in our classes are fleeting, we would do anything for them. It's sad that something like this had to prove that. That something like this had to happen in order for people to start really thinking about gun and mental health issues... but this is something that needs to be solved.
THIS, CAN NEVER HAPPEN AGAIN