Why Daddy Drinks
How's this for a morning rush even more intense than that from a Starbucks triple espresso: the phone call from a frantic Mrs. Po at 8:30 this morning that "someone's in the (daughter #2's) high school with a gun."
That gets one's attention in a hurry. And immediately spikes the heart rate. The stories of incidents in other cities and towns flash back before you, and get you thinking - where is the gun-toting student? Is there more than one? What's the issue here? And you realize the worst thing of all - there isn't a damned thing that a parent can do, except hope for the best and fight back the emotions that pour forth when, eerily concurrent with the end of the phone call, my laptop's screensaver kicks in and flashes a photo of daughter #2, taken at the high school, last year at daughter #1's graduation.
Add to this the fact that Mrs. Po's elementary school is a stone's throw from the high school, and she not only has to deal with the fact that her child is in a locked-down school, but also with a classroom of third graders who are similarly locked-down and in the classroom.
I could go into my anti-gun rant here, or link you to Cheryl Wheeler's great song about a similar situation that ended in tragedy, but the fact of the matter is that anyone with an axe to grind about anything, who may or may not be mentally unstable enough to act on it, can act out and cause a tragedy to happen -- but it's a heck of a lot more dangerous, because virtually anyone in this country can get a handgun just as easily as they can get a pack of cigarettes or a bag of Doritos. (Oops...guess that was a mini-rant.)
Thankfully, the incident was resolved quickly and without injury - turns out that someone saw the student enter the high school with the gun, immediately reported it to staff, and all schools were locked down AFTER the student left the building, and he was apprehended (hopefully with techniques similar to those the Bush Administration endorses for dealing with "enemy combatants") in a nearby neighborhood about an hour later. I still feel like I'm running at 120 mph, though.
Daughter #2 did call on her cell phone (probably a violation of school rules, but I think the kids were deservedly cut a little slack today) an hour or so later, which was a relief. Several students had left to go home, but she figured there was enough police protection around there that she didn't want to. She assured me she was fine, but I figured I'd use the time-tested technique of prompting for dialogue from the movie "Airplane!" to check her anxiety level:
"So are you OK now? Were you nervous?"
"A little bit."
"First time?"
"No, I've been nervous before."
Yeah, she's OK, for now. But she may need to join Mrs. Po and I for a cocktail and a big hug this evening.
posted by J.Po @ 1:49 PM
4 comments
4 Comments:
My son's school hasn't had any murders since he started there. They had two in one year awhile back. Not on school grounds, but still scary.
Lordy. Glad it turned out okay. You must still be sweating.
My cousin got into a minor fender bender on the freeway recently with, of all things, an armored car. It was my cousin's fault, but it wasn't intentional and hey, he's a teenager. Things happen.
The attendant guard (not the driver who never gets out of the car), you know, the uniformed "professional" with a GUN on his hip, got out and screamed threats and obscenities at him, prompting him to call his mom (my aunt) who called 911. Later my aunt called up the armored transport company (rhymes with "Stinks") and reported the incident and truck ID number, and let them know in no uncertain terms that she felt that the guard was potentially dangerous, had no business screaming at anyone, and that she would settle for no less than that he be disciplined in some way and that the company issue a formal apology to her son. She's tough; she'll get what she asks.
But she was terrified as she listened on the phone to this man WITH A GUN yelling at her son that he would effing eff him up etc. etc., and wondered how this would end. Thank God it ended with no one getting hurt.
Well, J., that's certainly beyond scary, and I'm really glad everything turned out okay (except for the nutball with the gun, who will, I hope, spend a great deal of time in a Pennsylvania correctional facility, contemplating the error of his ways). As a parent, I can feel your panic. Coincidentally, the day before this happened to the Po family, I got a call from my daughter, who was in Budapest- yes, where anti-government rioting was going on. She called to assure me that, contrary to CNN reports, it wasn't that bad, it was fairly calm where she was, but with an increased police presence, and, in any case, it didn't seem to be any worse (and may have been a bit better) than College Park traditionally is after U. of Md. loses to Duke. You never get to stop worrying about your kids, even when they're adults.
Thanks for stopping by, Z!
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