There was a big fight at our school last Friday. According to kids close to the fight -- kids that were at the epicenter of the fight -- 4 white kids beat up 1 freshman hispanic kid and sent that kid to the hospital with multiple fractures and injuries. This was the culmination of months of tension between two groups of kids.
Now, the kids came home from school with big eyes and anxiety. They were wound up and unsure of what was really going on. The school was flooded with armed police and they were still there when they went back to school on Monday. Over the weekend, a young blogger posted an entry on his myspace indicating that he was going to incite more violence ... shoot up the school ... and that apparently was nipped in the bud by the administration.
So, we all sent our kids off to school on Monday with the rumors flying, the story growing and the uncertainty and anxiety in the pits of their stomachs. Late Monday night the principal sent out an e-mail explaining that "Last Friday morning, there was a fight between two students outside the building. Security invtervened immediately. The police were called and both students received consequences." There's more to the letter but there is no mention of racial tension, of the injuries sustained, of the status of the injured party or any actual details. That was worrisome.
On Tuesday and Wednesday the kids kept talking, IMing, blogging, phoning and worrying ... worrying ... worrying ... and the principal had small meetings with kids and decided that this Friday that the kids who are trained as a part of the Anti-Defamation League leaders in the NAMES program would have peer meetings to try to settle down the situation ...
KIDS are going to counsel KIDS about a very big, very out-of-control and VERY adult situation ...
Tonight, there is a big rumor -- or is it -- floating that there is another shooting threat and that the police will be guarding the school tomorrow so that kids will be able to come into school and that there are groups of kids targeted in the shooting threat and that a group of the kids making the threat are currently AWOL.
I actually don't care if it's a hoax or a rumor -- my kid isn't going to school tomorrow. If it is -- nothing is lost. If it is not -- something is gained. Either way, the school environment feels out of control and unsafe and that seems to be when bad things really do happen.
I hope it's a rumor and a hoax. For the sake of the principal and the administrators. For the sake of the police. For the sake of the kids. For their safety and need to feel like they are not vulnerabel to senseless violence.
Yikes. I'm thinking about all of you and hope everything is better this week.
Posted by: Lisa | February 13, 2006 at 08:08 PM