Serious and Sad

I know that this blog is supposed to be a humorous look at my life (at least that's what it says in the title, not that my last few posts have been a reflection of that at all), I've been thinking about things for a while that I think I need to get off my chest.

Let me preface this by saying that I took a new job. I'm working as a paraprofessional (an aide, for those of you not familiar with modern school lingo) at my local high school. It's something that I'd been thinking about for a while, and I was offered the job 4 minutes into my interview, so I figured that either a), they REALLY needed a warm body, or b), my past experience as a sub with a teaching background made me qualified, or c) both a and b. Whatever the case, I applied for the job on Wednesday, interviewed the following Monday, started the job Thursday morning. It was good to be back at the school that I worked at for several years, even if many of the faces had changed (or I thought they looked familiar, but wasn't sure of exactly how). I was surprised to find out that the following day (Friday) was a day off. Sweet! One day in, then a day off. Then, the unthinkable happened.

Thursday night, when I got back from my other job (at 9:45 at night), I got on the computer to check my mail, the news, etc. from the day, since I'd been without a computer since starting work at 1pm. The top story is that a girl from a town by us had been murdered when she got home from school... she apparently walked in on a burglar in her house and was stabbed to death. She went to the high school that I now worked at. All I could think about was "did I have this girl in class today? Did I see her in the hallway? If I didn't, what students that I work with did?"

They haven't charged anyone with this horrific crime yet. The monster that did this is still out there, somewhere. Yes, I know that bad people are out there, I'm not so naive as to think that bad things can't happen to people that don't deserve it. But I've never been close enough to an event like this (luckily) to really have to stop and think about this and what it's done to this community, to these kids.

Yesterday was the first day back at school since Kelli was murdered. It was a bad day. There was a memorial outside the building with candles, flowers, and the like. There were news trucks with TV cameras aimed at the school for shots of "the first day back." There were lots of extra counselors, social workers, etc. Everyone was wearing black. What should have been a fun day of silly costumes and makeup was a day of mourning. Some kids were bawling, some just sniffling, and others just stared blankly into nothing... it was the elephant in the room that people didn't want to talk about, but you couldn't dismiss that it was there. I didn't quite know how I fit into all this, because there I was, on my 2nd day of work, having to deal with kids that I didn't really know (and they didn't know me) in one of the most vulnerable moments of their lives.

The monster that did this to that girl didn't just kill that girl. He invaded the lives of everyone in this community. Teenagers have so much to deal with already, it's a horrible shame that they now have to deal with this too. I hope that they catch whoever did this and hold him (or her) responsible. However, he didn't just murder an innocent girl: he has unleashed a terrible demon into the lives of everyone in this community, and I hope that sometime down the road that's a debt that repaid too.