After the terrible events of this past Friday, many students, parents, and teachers no doubt woke up this morning apprehensive about what the school day might hold today. Myself, I wondered if I would have to substitute today, and if I did what I might say to any students who I heard talking about the shooting in Sandyhook Elementary. Now what I might have said would have varied by age, but the core of the message was this: however you are feeling, it is okay. Anger, sadness, fear, confusion, or even if you can’t put words to it. It is okay. You are entitled to your emotions. What you are not entitled to is to take them out on others. We are all mourning, and we all mourn differently. Now is not the time for fighting or arguing, but a time to pull together with hearts full of compassion to offer what comfort we can to the victims and families of victims of this and other shootings. If you feel the need, even though I am just a sub, you can come to me during lunch or after class and just talk. I will listen, and not judge.
I offer you the same invitation, readers. You are entitled to your emotions. I know I am just a stranger on the net, but if you feel that you need to talk with someone about your feelings about this tragedy, feel free to shoot me an email through the Contact Me page or leave a comment here. The latter will lead to a quicker response, because my email is really, really full and I don’t always get to check it, but regardless I will get back to you. No one here will judge, and trolls will be deleted with extreme prejudice. Now is not the time for snark and cynical joking, but for healing. There was a lot I could have written here, but I decided to keep things short and to the point, without getting too much into my feelings about the political/societal aspects that I feel led to the massacre. There is a time and a place for that, but right here on this blog, we aren’t going to talk about that today.
