A sad day for this Ohio ping.
You never know what a day will bring.
I was subbing in an elementary school today, where I have subbed many times. The teacher in the room just adjacent to mine - it’s almost like a divided classroom so we are just earshot away - got a call around 8:30 a.m. and I could hear her just crying out in emotional pain, with words such as “Oh God, NO” and so on.
It was so heartwrenching, I knew something horrific had happened and immediately began praying. I walked in to see her and she said, “My nephew has been shot. He’s in Chardon.”
I didn’t even know there had been a school shooting. This teacher told me her sister had just phoned to say that the fire department had called HER to come immediately to Metro (Metro General Hospital is our best trauma hospital) and that her son had been life-flighted there.
This poor teacher was shaking like a leaf and kept saying, “What will my sister do?” I asked her if I could pray with her and she said okay. I held out my hand to her and another teacher who, by now, had walked in as well. I prayed. We tried to comfort her and yet another teacher came in to offer to ride with her to Metro where she could meet her sister.
Sometime later...not sure when exactly, but it was probably around 11 a.m., one of the teachers from across the hall came into the room and looked at me with tears in her eyes. She just shook her head from side to side.
It was very difficult to hold in the emotions from the children in my room.
All I can say is this event, which happened to strangers, has now come into my own orbit.
There is so much darkness in our culture (and our world). I see it everyday as a teacher. Just darkness. When will people wake up and see that our children are killing each other. It’s not because of bullying or anything else. It’s because our children have nothing to hope for any more. Our culture has become so secular that children are told to put their faith in everything BUT the one thing that will give them strength, faith, courage, hope, AND love.
I just had to write on here. I can still see the anguish in that aunt’s face. I cannot even fathom what her family is going through now.