I am the product of a regular family. There were problems to be
sure, but we all got along pretty well as kids, and we all get
along pretty well as adults.
I am the product of a regular family. There were problems to be sure, but we all got along pretty well as kids, and we all get along pretty well as adults.
We all have rather traditional families now ourselves. I think of my own family as a regular family, even though we are all guilty of an unhealthy obsession with Christopher Guest movies.
I have been thinking about my family non-stop since last Friday. That day I was anxiously awaiting news from my child.
My sixth grade son was away from his family for the first time, playing at Disneyland with the Brownell Band. I was missing him, eagerly awaiting his next call. I was anxious and nervous and thrilled for him. True to form, he didn’t call into late that night, and I cherished the sound of his voice when I heard it.
Last Friday afternoon I received a phone call from my oldest child.
My panicked daughter called near the end of the lockdown at Gilroy High and I dispatched my husband to get to the campus.
His reaction was to quickly remove my daughter (and as many of her friends as could squeeze in his car) from the campus. Off we went to Black Bear Diner for a well-deserved lunch. The kids all speculated about what had happened, they wondered what students and teachers were involved. Because the kids received virtually no information for hours, we were all surprised by how little anyone really knew.
I have heard my children talk about kids at school who are troubled. It seems like far too many kids are troubled.
The three students who pulled off this felony are in serious need of mental health assistance.
Their Friday started with a merely bad decision and then spiraled into a series of criminal mistakes which could alter the course of their young lives. After arriving at school, this trio decided to cut class. That’s typical dumb teenager hijinks. They hitched a ride, and en route decided to steal from a kind stranger. Hmmm … who gives three school age kids a ride to McDonald’s on a school day?
I guess it never occurred to this fellow that kids belong in school at nine in the morning on a weekday. Then the calls were made. Voices were disguised, threats made against an innocent teacher, and havoc was wreaked upon an entire community.
Before today, I was not familiar with the term “bust a cap.” I would have guessed it was a dental term. Now that I know what it means, I can only imagine how that poor teacher felt when the police informed her of the threat.
The student perpetrators were reported to be giggling once they brought to the police station. Maybe these kids have been there before. I can’t help but wonder what kind of families these kids come from. I can’t help but think that this kind of crime would never be committed by my daughter or any of her friends. I can’t help but wonder how the parents of these students are feeling right now.
It is not lost on me that these students need help. They need the kind of emotional support and therapeutic help that most kids get from their family and friends. They need guidance, discipline, counseling, and someone to listen to them.
It is also not lost on me that these conditions exist before teenagers become teenagers and raging hormones only compound the problematic tendencies. It is not lost on me that there are people who can deal with these issues before trouble become criminal. (Insert disclaimer here: I had planned on taking a temporary vacation from my scheduled tirade at the school board over some poorly chosen words and decisions of the past two weeks.)
All I can say is … there they go again! Last Thursday, our school board voted to layoff half of the nursing staff in the district, and a counselor who works with middle school students.
The district office is brimming with its usual cadre of administrators; many people believe that one of them is expendable for the sake of the safety and health of students.
If you are the parent of a student who is injured at school, you better hope it happens during one of the few hours a week that a school nurse is on campus. If you have a 13-year-old who is suicidal or in a crisis situation you better start praying.
I am beyond anger; I’m reserving that for November. I am completely disillusioned by this decision. Whose idea was it to lay off nurses to save a few bucks? Has anyone seen our priorities?
