Helicopters And News Trucks

She came home from school, went in her room, curled up on her bed and said she was scared. When I asked why she said she didn’t know. Once again anxiety had taken hold of my daughter and I didn’t know why.

It wasn’t until dinner time that I was able to figure it out. She mentioned that there were helicopters flying above her school and news trucks parked outside. She didn’t know why they were there and was frightened as she saw them coming out of school. To her it was scary. My daughter that thrives on predictability was thrown off guard. What she normally sees looking through the window in the van that takes her home was different. Things were different as she left school that day.

Unfortunately in this day and age when we see helicopters hovering above a high school and news trucks parked out front we automatically think tragedy. Unfortunately as much as we try and shield our daughter from hearing about and seeing “bad things” she is aware of them. How very sad it is that she came home from school that day scared. How very sad it is that our children now instinctively have acts of violence ingrained in them. I wonder if my daughter was the only one frightened that day or if there were others.

As I explained to her that the helicopters and news trucks were there to cover a story about a sports team at her school she became less afraid. There were no bad guys shooting up her school and she didn’t need to be afraid.

This story of our high school soccer team has sparked a united front from our community. The team was about to be disqualified from playing a championship game because of clerical errors made by adults. Our community however, stood together and protected our children from the harsh realities of this world. Our children learned, at least this time, that if you stand up for what us right and fight really hard, sometimes you can win.

Why then is it so hard to win against the risk of violence that our children are faced with in today’s world? Why should our children be coming home from school, going into their rooms, curling up in their beds and saying they are scared? It’s time that we as a community stand together to make sure our children are protected from the wrongs of this world. How that is accomplished I don’t know. Perhaps as a community we can stand together and figure it out. Perhaps next time my daughter won’t come home curl up in her bed and say she is afraid.