Bad Day

The ironic thing about yesterday was that I brought my camera to work to take pictures of the pep assembly and instead caught some images that I never in a million years thought I would see outside my classroom window. Never in a million years did I think that someone would be murdered just yards outside my classroom or that I would experience a teacher's worst nightmare of knowing a gunman was shooting where there were kids or that I would return home to hear about it in the national news. What happened at OHS yesterday was NOT a school shooting but innocent kids where put in danger and had some of their innocence taken and for that reason, it is every bit as tragic.

For those who don't know the whole story, a local anti-abortion protestor was shot and killed outside the high school yesterday morning. I had been in my room for about 10 minutes when I heard gun shots. It was a horrible few seconds of knowing what I had heard but not wanting to believe it. I then opened my window and heard screams of "call 911" After I called it in to the office and notified the other teachers in my hall, we began getting kids in the building. That part was the worst. It was foggy and we didn't know who was shooting or why. The rest of the day I had a crime scene outside my window. While it scared me, some of the kids who were outside at the time, had a much worse time.

I'm sad for the the families of the two victims. I'm sad for our freshmen who had to start their first week of high school like this. I'm sad for the many students who saw a man murdered right in front of them. I'm sad I actually had to see a day like this in my career. I'm sad for my friends who work in much more violent districts and see this kind of thing a lot more often.

But I'm also thankful. I'm thankful all the students and staff are OK. I'm thankful our staff worked as a team to lockdown and keep kids safe so flawlessly. I'm thankful that I work with some great administrators (in the middle picture from the AP) who worked amazingly to control the situation all day. And if you work in a place where you don't have to worry about crazy gunmen, be thankful.

To all of you who texted, called and emailed me yesterday checking on me and wishing me well, thank you again! You helped me through the day. Monday will be the true test but we will have a great 2009-2010 year! Go Owosso!