Sandy Hook in Newtown and What’s Next
As a parent, I found the tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School terrifying. I suppose the natural reaction after processing this is to 1) realize that it could happen anywhere including my school and 2) try to figure out a way to prevent it. And there in lies the rub. Because you can’t prevent this. Sandy Hook Elementary School had locked doors and a metal detector system.
My school district is buzzing around new procedures including locked doors. It’s going to be a huge inconvenience to the school’s front desk administration and parents who need to get their kids for medical appointments. And it’s not going to stop someone with the firepower to blow through the door (which is not bullet proof).
Last week, my kids’ elementary school had a “lock down.” There is a thief that has been robbing houses near our school and he hit a house on the same street. One adult in the neighborhood thought that he was armed. The police came to our school and helped to lock it down in case the suspect fled and tried to hide in the school. All the doors were locked. Kids were locked in their classrooms and the all the school’s entrances were locked.
My son in second grade didn’t seem affected by it but the my daughter’s fifth grade class were terrified. Many of the kids thought they were about to experience the Newtown tragedy. Some fifth graders cried during the lockdown. Others were just scared. We’ve all tried to shield our kids from details of Sandy Hook but it seems that fifth graders are worldly and resourceful. Many have iPhones with internet access.
Even though Sandy Hook was a month ago, the tragedy still resonates. We are all affected. There is now a universal fear that this could happen again. In our town. To our children.
I found some posts on the internet that were comforting and made sense to me. I’m not Buddhist, by the way, but my mother is.
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