Tuesday, May 20, 2008

Today, I am sad

This last week at school has been a bit of a roller coaster ride. I guess not a roller coaster ride so much as a free fall.

Monday, they found a 13 year old girls body wrapped in a carpet and dumped in an onion field right by my school. Turns out she was a student at a neighboring jr high, but don't know much about what happened to her yet. That same day we got word that one of our freshman passed away due to complications from an emergency operation. Then, later that week one of our teachers was arrested for having sex with a student. I am not even going to begin to editorialize on the details of these events, for a number of reasons, but oy vey. Rough week.

Anyhow-The freshman who died was not in my class, but I have had both of his brothers and know his family well. Such good people. Sweet, kind, thoughtful. Quality people. I am glad that I was able to go to the service today, even though I felt like a bit of a fish out of water. I've never been to a Catholic mass, let alone a mass in Spanish. I think my Mormon was showing all over the place. I understood very little of what was being said. I tried to be the quiet observer and stand at the right times, kneel when everyone else did, etc. but I must not have done a very good job. After the service, but before the precession, one of my cute little girls came over with tears in her eyes and said, "Why don't you come with us Ms King? You look confused." She was so sad, but worried about how I was feeling. Then seeing the boys say goodbye to their brother and seeing what sweet and thoughtful kids I get to work with everyday, that was right about the time I lost it. It was overwhelming to say the least.

Ughhh. Long, sad day. Burying kids is rough.

9 comments:

Sara said...

Gah! That is horrible. So sad.

Jillian said...

I gotta say that today, I am very grateful for my knowledge of the Gospel.

One of my students, a fellow Morm, came over to me at the burial and out of the blue said, "I'm really glad that we know about the Plan of Salvation. I like that we don't have to end this day with question marks about where he will go and what will happen."

I am not his mom....so I tried to curb the desire to hug him to pieces and tell him how proud of I am of him, but I just couldn't help it. I am constantly amazed by my students. They are awesome.

Naomi said...

That sucks.

Hope things get better.

JennaK said...

That does sound like a bad week. Very sad.

Kelsi {John, Jake, Georgia, Naomi, Alice} said...

oh Jill, that brings tears to my eyes. It's hard to lose a student. Really hard.

Thank goodness for the Plan.

Melissa said...

Wow, Jill. I'm so sorry.

Maursupial said...

I don't even know what to say. I'm crying even thinking about it...AGAIN. I'm glad that you went to the funeral, although I know it's tough at the same time. So so sad.

Rachael said...

Wow what a horrible week to end school on! So sad!

Joy said...

I'm sorry. That's really rough