Hiding
The update was posted on the school website. Two sentances with three mispelled words above the old info and dead links for enrollment. None of us parents noticed it. It wasn't until a news story about the sudden closure mentioned it that I looked. The news cast interviewed the principal, she said that she wasn't able to read minds, but she definitly believed her teachers because they knew some personal information about her. She didn't specify what. She asked for empathy and support for her staff. That there is enough to take in from a class of 30 without having to hear all of their thoughts. That the kids struggle and that their thoughts reflect that and are often more than she has the recources to deal with. That won't change though. The teachers won't get help just like they didn't get help before. Not unless they are poached by some rich suburban school full of brilliant white pupils who need kind adults to understand them perfectly. As if my boys don't need that.
My wife was able to get the last two days off. I'll be off tommorow. The day after will be trouble unless Myra convinces her mom to take them. They don't mind not going to school, the place was quite commonly a hell hole for them.
There's been some news of what the teachers are up to. One was evacuated from under her desk where she had hid. Her wrists were cut, but the news thinks she'll survive. Another is in custody after she shot one of her students step-fathers. I can't say I blame her. I don't want to know what that man had done.
I wonder what it would be like if it was a different school that had this happen some, happy go lucky private school in the middle of nowhere. There would be some note in a newspaper about an amazing academy that turned out the bright future of america. They would be gifted teachers shaping the future, and being the change they wished to see in the world. They would make songs about the value of friendship and publish them to youtube. My boys would complain that they had to sing those songs, and that the school lunch was terrible, and that Jayden shoved them into a snowbank and their pencils broke. They would ask us to make them lunches to bring from home. And we thinking of the thin pickings in the fridge would tell them that that is just the way the world is and that they have deal with it. Words that those gifted teachers would never say.
I wish I had it in me to hope for change, improvement, a brighter future for my boys. I can't right now though, I'm tired. Maybe in the morning I'll catch a few seconds of hope before the tired ache sets in again.