Don't Forget...

If you don't live in Colorado, you might have already forgotten about an event that rocked our little community.  The media tends to blink through these moments.  They move on to the next dramatic, "news-worthy" world event so as to keep our attention and our interest in all things astonishing and horrifically mind boggling.  They veer away from stories that get stale and stories that lose their drama.  Let me assure you - there's nothing stale or non-dramatic about the aftermath of the school shooting that took place that Friday afternoon at Arapahoe High School.

We remember.  Especially today as the Arapahoe students and faculty are meeting for the first time since their safe place of learning, growth and community was violated.  Claire didn't survive that tragedy, despite the community's prayers, vigil's, thoughts, fundraisers and hopes.  We raised money. We lit up Christmas lights on our roofs spelling out "AHS." We put cups in chain link fences in support of AHS and Claire.  We hung signs in our car windows.  We prayed.  We smiled at each other and talked about the reality of the world we're now officially a part of.  Students shared stories of where they were that day when the gun fire began.  Parents shared stories of where they were when they heard about the gun fire.  And when they finally got word that their child was alive.  Not well, but alive.  This is all still fresh folks.  Not stale and still incredibly "newsworthy."  There's also a sense of hope and community that you haven't seen in your local news.  This community has banned together, at first for Claire and now for each other.  The Warriors are a strong body and if nothing else, this tragedy is proving that to them.    

I encourage you to keep the Arapahoe community in your mind, even if it's just in the back.  Think about them.  Pray for their piece of mind and their strength.  Consider what it's like for those kids and staff walking down the halls of their school today.  And tomorrow.  And next year.  Try to predict what you would do if it was your local school or heaven forbid, your kid.  You might have to sleep with them for the following weeks just so they can close their eyes. That's the case for our 16 year old babysitter.  You might have to hire a therapist to emotionally walk you through the scenes that are now ingrained in your mind.  You might have to be convinced that it's worth it to walk back into those halls and that fear is a reality that now needs to be squashed, somehow.  Fear is being squashed for those thousands of kids today.  The healing process is at infancy stages.      

Whether we want to believe it or not, fear is now a part of our educational system.  Whether or not we let it dominate our thoughts and actions is another issue and one that needs to be tackled on an individual level.  I would imagine school administrators are now building lists of students to watch. Student who just might be capable of something like this.  That's gut-wrenching to me but I get it.  The gravity of the role of being a school administrator and teacher continues to increase.  As if their task of educating our children wasn't grave enough.  Add "protect them for physical harm" to the job description.  My appreciation for this group of professionals grows stronger each and every day.  

Once you see a legitimate "Lock Down" sign on your child's school door, fear hits disturbingly close to home.  Its taken time to process the details of what our teacher friends experienced, what neighborhood parents and students lived through and what the future holds for our school system.  I have to firmly cling to faith that God has his hand on our kids to aid in overcoming my fear of putting my Dude on the big yellow bus in the morning.  The reality is, he might not be safe and there's nothing I can do about that.  But I trust that our school team is doing everything in their power to ensure he is.  And I trust that God's hand in over them as they venture down that path of protection.  Think and pray.  That's my request.