tears

yesterday after school an 8th grader was beat up on his way home from school. he is in critical condition at the children's hospital with broken ribs, multiple facial injuries, and hemorrhaging in his brain. he was beat by a 20-something man, a relative of another student he had a dispute with. his sister also goes to our school. about 10-15 kids continued beating him once he was unconscious; paramedics had to break up the fighting. word has it that it doesn't look hopeful for him.

today, news crews and the ceo of the school district were at the school. we couldn't leave our classrooms at all. at the end of the day, i talked to my class about it. a few of them got how tragic this is. a few didn't. a few minutes later, they were threatening their brothers and cousins on another kid in our class who then threw a desk and ran out of the room crying. i absolutely flipped.

i'm standing there, tears running down my face, motioning wildly (of course), practically yelling but with more love in my voice than usual ... trying to convey to them that *this* is how it starts. these are probably the same things that kid heard as he walked out of school yesterday. there's no reason that it's him and not one of you getting hurt like that out there, and i absolutely can't STAND the thought of anything happening to them. this is not right, it's not normal, and it's not fair that kids come into school here afraid of what other kids are going to say or do.

uggh. it is really not fair. my heart hurts.