Schools as Targets: How Can We Respond?

It is a difficult year to say "Merry Christmas", haunted as we are by the children and adults who lost their lives in the senseless shooting in Newtown.  I have been praying for the families of the victims, as I think most of us have.  Praying that God will envelope them with His healing love.  As for the victims themselves, we know God is holding them in the palm of His hand, with infinite love and care.  Their souls He has doubtless already healed.   It is the ones who are left behind who suffer and mourn.  

It is not enough to say, this time, that this event only leads us to appreciate our own families all the more.  It is not enough just to take this occasion to be grateful for our own children.  It is not enough because the murders struck at the heart of all that is good and orderly, in the only place where we still come together as a society, the one place where we should be able to assume that children are safe.  For many people school is the only common civic endeavor we undertake.  Perhaps that is why schools have become a target (although it's difficult to know, because it's difficult to understand the twisted motivations of a mass murderer).  

As a teacher in a title one middle school, I am acutely aware of all the possible pitfalls that happen inside of a school-- perhaps a jacket is stolen, or a rumor starts that makes a child cry.  A fight may even erupt.   One thing we don't expect is for an armed person to come in and create mayhem and tragedy.  Even while we're adjusting to this threat, we need to ask ourselves what what we can do to counteract the spiritual chaos that created it.  Yes, we need protective measures, increased security, heightened awareness.  Yet what are we doing to counteract the root cause, the sense of isolation and hopelessness that young people may develop?

It's not enough just to excise the cancer, we need to strengthen our whole civic body.  Volunteer your time at your house of worship, in a local school, or be a part of a mentoring program.  If you garden or care for animals, pull children into your activities.  Don't allow your own children to be isolated.  Reach out to families you know who are stressed by circumstances.  Encourage children and teenagers when they do good and creative things.  Help your town to expand arts programs and recreational sports facilities.  Even in these tough fiscal times, encourage your legislators to vote for increased mental health and youth program funding.  

Most of all, I think, we need to seek God's guidance in this and all things.  Early each morning, before I pack my kids' lunches and begin the whole hectic morning routine that lands them in one school and me in another, I pray "God, help me to know Your will for me, and help me to do it.  Bless those who suffer, Lord, and bless those who mourn.  Enfold them in Your peace.   Help me to be a blessing to my family, my students, and my community.  Make me a channel of Your love and Your peace.  Amen."