frustration and tragedy

I love the idea of a blog - sort of anonymous but out there. I say this because while I love facebook, I feel that I have to be super careful with things I post due to the fact that I am a school board employee.

I am the dreaded, feared, hated, pitied, sometimes admired creature - a high school teacher.

I got a call from my father today. I can always tell from his tone that someone has died. It's that weird stilted voice and the feeling he has to say something he doesn't want to say.

3 boys were killed in a car accident - alcohol is suspected. I was relieved to discover they weren't my students, but looking at the photos posted - I recognize them. I passed these boys in the halls. I most likely have had their friends in class.

I know this seems odd and out of place on this blog - we discuss the books we've read, and our walk with the Lord. But this is a huge part of my daily life - especially since school is a few short weeks away. I constantly see kids with this idea that tragedy can't befall them. When it does happen to a friend, they have this attitude that it still won't happen to them - b/c it happened to someone they know.

There was a mandatory assembly that I had to take my students too. It was heart breaking - all about drugs and unintentional overdoses, the combination of pills and alcohol. There were students who joked afterward. The same students who are a little too fond of Bob Marley and make jokes about the weekends. I have often said how frustrating it is to hear these things - there have been lawsuits and such that make it not advisable for teachers to report this to parents directly. There is a process - refer to guidance, etc. etc. ERG!

Some of my students are so lost - they ask me questions that stun me. The one that I've gotten used to but still makes me so sad - "what religion am i?". The idea that things aren't wrong if you're not caught (drinking, cheating, stealing, lieing). The sin issue is beyond them.

I don't understand where the parents are - what are they doing? We are starting a book called grace based parenting - in the first few lines it speaks of good intentions. It's an assumption that I am finding is truly flawed. I don't know that every parent has good intentions. Maybe they had them in the cute stages of infancy and toddlerhood - but as the child grows - the interest is lost. Too often I speak to parents who have given up on their children. "Oh well - it's their life - I can't make them do anything..." A 15 or 16 year old, while desiring independence needs the guidance of parents needs their help.

I don't know anything about the home lives of these particular boys - and I do pray for their families - we know best intentions do not always mean perfect children. This was one mistake the driver made - to drink and drive.