Sad School News
Jan. 4th, 2011 09:56 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
fleaThere were two murders in my city last week. Both murder victims had children who attend school with my kids; one of the children is in Casper's class. I should note that while the city had a high poverty rate and a lot of public housing, it has a relatively low crime rate and not much in the way of gang or drug activity - and neither of these killings seem to be connected to those sorts of issues.
A single mother aged 25, with a 3rd grader, was stabbed to death at her job at a convenience store, alone and late at night. The store was not robbed. The daughter will probably be moving in with her grandmother; she lived alone with her mother in public housing.
A single father aged 30, with 3 children (but not residing with them; he lived with his mother) was shot to death while sitting in his driveway listening to the car radio, in a stable working-class neighborhood. He worked for the city. His daughter DaNaya is in Casper's class and he also had a daughter in PreK, but in the other classroom so I do not know her.
The school administration and the PTO are aware of this and doing what they can to be supportive of the families; the counselor will be coming to talk to the affected classes before the children come back to school. It seems like a heavy burden for an elementary school class to bear. And those poor little girls.
A single mother aged 25, with a 3rd grader, was stabbed to death at her job at a convenience store, alone and late at night. The store was not robbed. The daughter will probably be moving in with her grandmother; she lived alone with her mother in public housing.
A single father aged 30, with 3 children (but not residing with them; he lived with his mother) was shot to death while sitting in his driveway listening to the car radio, in a stable working-class neighborhood. He worked for the city. His daughter DaNaya is in Casper's class and he also had a daughter in PreK, but in the other classroom so I do not know her.
The school administration and the PTO are aware of this and doing what they can to be supportive of the families; the counselor will be coming to talk to the affected classes before the children come back to school. It seems like a heavy burden for an elementary school class to bear. And those poor little girls.
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Date: 2011-01-04 03:45 pm (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2011-01-04 09:59 pm (UTC)We had a child murder (and attempted murder) just before Herself started at her school. In the long run, I think things are okay, though there are lingering issues (e.g. there sometimes have to be conversations around things like why comic songs about throwing people off buildings are not okay. It was a bridge but still.)
Though I think in some ways kids handle this stuff better than grownups, at least small kids, because they can usually talk about what it means to them instead of bottling it all up.