Tragedy in Connecticut

My mind is reeling. I don’t know what to say or to do. Twenty little babies – five, six or seven years old – have been murdered. A madman went into an elementary school to kill his mother- a kindergarten teacher - and to kill twenty precious little babies. Babies still excited about the school experience. Babies whose biggest worry was what they will get for Christmas in just a little over a week.

I am a kindergarten teacher. I teach children who are the exact same age as these innocent babies. I am a grandmother. My grandchildren are just a little younger than these little ones that will not celebrate Christmas, or New Year’s, or graduation, or anything…

This hits too close to home for me. This could have been my classroom – my students – my school. As I listen to the news reports, I am thinking what would have done in this same situation. Could I have done anything?

I am positive that this teacher’s first and only thought this morning was the safety of her students. I don’t know how long she had to think before she died, but I know her thoughts were of these precious children in her care. I know that she died wanting to help those children – possibly reaching out to them in an effort to protect them.

We probably won’t ever really know why – at least all of the why’s – this horrible thing happened. We know that a very disturbed young man ended these lives just as they were beginning.

I have to think about the young students I will see on Monday morning. I hope they have not heard this horrible news. I hope they don’t have questions for me. I hope that they don’t want to know why this thing happened.

I hope they don’t ask – because I just don’t have any answers for them….