Holy shit...(trigger: school shooting)

[WOT?*]

I just picked up the phone because I saw it was our school district calling. Thought there would be a message about early dismissal or else the health room was calling about Kidlet. Instead, it was a call notifying us that there was a shooting in a high school in our county, in the district just north of us.

Coincidentally (or not so coincidentally) I am arranging speakers for our PTA presentations and the one I am working with scheduling for next month is giving talks on safety and how to talk to your kids without causing fear.  I'm leaning toward saying screw it and just paying the fee to get her there to talk.

[rageragerage]

Oh man How scary.

[Deleted]

how scary! praying for everyone

[iammalcolmx]

My god, prayers to all impacted.

[isabel]

I was just watching that on the news. I'm sorry.

[revolution]

This just came across my CNN Breaking news email.

I'm so sorry. I hope everyone is ok.

[WOT?*]

From what I am reading, six shot, two are being airlifted and the shooter is dead from a self-inflicted gunshot wound. Kids are being escorted and transported by bus to a local church, police are clearing out the school, checking classrooms (with guns drawn, those poor scared kids that are still there) and marking doors with tape of rooms that have been cleared.

Those poor kids.

I'm head of Humanitarian. Any thoughts on what an elementary school can do to help support them? I'll be talking with our school counselor for suggestions.

Fuck, I drive past these guys to get to Oso (last year's mudslide.)

[angelaa73]

Oh God. Please no

[WOT?*]

Oct 24, 2014 13:34:02 GMT -5 cjoy said:

Ugh, scary.

One of the little girls on my soccer team was telling me at our last practice. "We had a drill today in school! Just a tornado drill. Not the scary shooter drill... I don't like that one..." I hate that this is reality for our kids now.

We had a lockdown drill last week when I was clay-training for art docent.  We were covered in clay and had to leave our tables in the cafeteria to go to a classroom where we could be locked in. These are K-5 kids.

I'm right there with you.

[WOT?*]

Oct 24, 2014 13:36:11 GMT -5 farmvillelover said:

Just logged on to page joenali and jenny1980 to see if all was ok too bc I just saw bewsv

They're south of me. So is sugarbear. All should hopefully be okay with them.

[Marle]

Oh no! How scary!

[hazel]

Holy crap - just turned on the TV.

[1confused1]

So scary

[bugandbibs]

I hate that this is our new reality. I'm south of you, and it's all over the news here.

[ginandjucie24]

So scary.

[WOT?*]

Oct 24, 2014 13:59:23 GMT -5 kooshball said:

argh, just heard. Well, maybe people will vote the gun things down now.

Yeah, no. It hasn't happened yet and I don't see it happening now.  Second Amendment and all that. They'll be voting to arm teachers instead.

[cinderbella]

My daughters preschool does an "elephant drill" which is the equivalent of am outside intruder drill. They pretend there's a giant elephant in the school and they need to close the doors and be quiet and stay away from the 'elephant'.......they even have juice boxes and snacks in every room in case it's a long term thing. I almost burst in to tears when her teacher told me that at conferences.

[jennysmitten]

Oh no.

[revolution]

I've been watching a lot of the CNN feed today and those poor kids. Fuck man. Those poor kids.

[joshlyman]

Welcome to the new America. Where guns are more important than children. Yay.

[1confused1]

I'm bawling at the interview of a dad on CNN now. Those poor families.

[fivechickens]

This is so sad. :-(

I was watching our local news and they were showing the kids in special ed being taken outside. Ugh!

[Deleted]

So sad. Hope ML's children are all okay.

[sugarbear]

I just can't. I am in the middle of conferences and have a stream of parents and kids, and I keep checking the news but I only have a few minutes. I do know someone who teaches at the school, but not well enough to call him right now.

Ugh. Those poor, poor kids.

[WOT?*]

I was helping set up for book fair. Our Technology teacher is from there. She knows the family of the shooter (not sure if she knows the shooter but she's familiar with the family) and it's likely she or her kids know families of the victims and other students; her kids all graduated from there. Fourteen year old boy, shooting over a girl. Two of the victims were his cousins. His damn cousins. One of them was life-flighted to Seattle; I think he was one of the kids shot in the head. The kid was part of a very prominent family of the Tulalip tribe and well known and liked in the community.

I remember Kiddo and Kidlet cheering for the pee-wee football teams at the high school when they went to the playoffs a couple years ago. Damn, I'd forgotten about that.

The high school my kids went to was set to play football with them tonight. They'd already bussed down to Marysville for the game. They went to the church and gathered as a team to support the high school. They forfeited the game and gave the victory to Marysville. Class act, Oak Harbor High School. Class act.

Shit.

[joenali]

Oct 24, 2014 13:36:11 GMT -5 farmvillelover said:

Just logged on to page joenali and jenny1980 to see if all was ok too bc I just saw bewsv

Everything is fine in my neck of the woods. Marysville is about an hour away from where I live. The school district where I work just sent out an email to Families about dealing with trauma etc. My stepdad holds a political office in the county where the school is, so he has been there doing what he needs to do. It's reawlly sad, we would have our big district swimming meets at that school. Even though that was of 20 years ago, it's just sad to think how much the school climate has changed with so much violence. It just shows that it can happen anywhere and at any time.