Tragedy At A Local School Today

[ravenwoodglass]

A local student committed suicide today at school with a shot gun in a bathroom at his high school. Those of you who pray if you could say a quick prayer for his family and the other students effected by this tragic event perhaps it will help them deal with this.

He had brought the gun and some incediary devices to school with him this morning and apparently decided not to attack others but to instead kill himself.

I will out of respect for his family not give his name but God will know.

Why does there have to be so much pain in this world?

[Judyin Philly]

Raven.......how kind of you to post

i sure don't have an answer to your question tho.

prayers for all those involved going up now..

[flourgirl]

Those families have my prayers. It's so hard to understand these events at all. Are our children so full of despair, hopelessness and anger that tempts them to do these things? My prayers always are for peace...for individuals, for countries, for the world over. My heart goes out to them.

[Lisa]

It's so sad when our young people can't feel that they can go somewhere for help in desperate times. Peace for that young man and for his parents.

[purple]

Thanks for posting and for caring. Kids really have alot to deal with. It's so sad they think life can't be different for them. They get stuck in a rut and go deeper, seeing no way out. God is always the answer. I will pray that God will turn this tragic situation into something good and for comfort to those that are hurting.

[ravenwoodglass]

Thank you for your prayers. I wish he had been able to get help before this tragedy happened. He must have been in so much pain and felt so alone. No child should feel so hopeless. I wish there was something that could have been done to help him. This makes me even more determined to become well enough to take in an at-risk child.

[mushroom]

The very sad part about this is that the kids who need the most help are those that internalize everything and are not overtly depressed. I can speak from personal experience that it is very easy (well, not very easy but it can be done) to put up a false exterior and behave as everyone expects you to behave, which is quite the opposite of what you are feeling. and which is really extremely difficult. Admittedly you are not the most outgoing person in the room, the life of the party; you are desperately trying not to be the wallflower, the one who stands out as being an oddball, and you do such a good job of covering it up that no one suspects how difficult it is, what is going on deep down inside. It is very difficult to help a child like that, and the reason is that there is such pressure to conform and be normal, that we try to do this at great personal cost, and we don't scream for help because that would attract too much attention. In the end we get desperate and we all act out in various ways, some destructively, some self-destructively, and a few of the lucky ones find someone who hears the silent scream.

T'is all very sad and I thank the powers that be every day for that person who heard my silent scream. I wish I could find her again to thank her.

[ravenwoodglass]

The very sad part about this is that the kids who need the most help are those that internalize everything and are not overtly depressed. I can speak from personal experience that it is very easy (well, not very easy but it can be done) to put up a false exterior and behave as everyone expects you to behave, which is quite the opposite of what you are feeling. and which is really extremely difficult. Admittedly you are not the most outgoing person in the room, the life of the party; you are desperately trying not to be the wallflower, the one who stands out as being an oddball, and you do such a good job of covering it up that no one suspects how difficult it is, what is going on deep down inside. It is very difficult to help a child like that, and the reason is that there is such pressure to conform and be normal, that we try to do this at great personal cost, and we don't scream for help because that would attract too much attention. In the end we get desperate and we all act out in various ways, some destructively, some self-destructively, and a few of the lucky ones find someone who hears the silent scream.

T'is all very sad and I thank the powers that be every day for that person who heard my silent scream. I wish I could find her again to thank her.

You are so right. I think this sort of thing really hits home with me mainly because of my suicide at age 11. If my brother had found me a few minutes later I wouldn't be here. I worked with at risk kids before I got to sick to work. In the years since far to many of them have died or gone to prison. I was very close to some of them and I have always felt, unjustified I know, that if I had been able to continue maybe things would have turned out different for the lost ones. It is so hard to be young and to have nowhere to turn. I also had a person who in my teens really 'saved' me just by being there and listening and giving me positive feedback, something I never got from my own family. Sometimes just a hug and a caring ear can help so much. I wish I could take every unloved child in my arms and let them know how valuable they really are. I know I am not alone in that and as my mother always said, 'you can't save the world'. But as I used to reply, 'I can't save the world but perhaps if we all try to 'save' just one piece they will add up'.

[DakotaRN]

My prayer has already been sent. Bless you for caring.

[mushroom]

I wish I could take every unloved child in my arms and let them know how valuable they really are. I know I am not alone in that and as my mother always said, 'you can't save the world'. But as I used to reply, 'I can't save the world but perhaps if we all try to 'save' just one piece they will add up'.

You are a very caring, loving person. You are so right in saying that we all need to do our little bit, however small it may be, to reach out to those in need, to hear their silent scream and be there for them. As you say, often it is just an acknowledgment, an encouraging word, a validation of self-worth, a hug, a compliment; for a child not receiving these things they can be very important. I am sorry you endured these things as a child, and so sorry for all the others still going through it and maybe not making it out the other side.

[oceangirl]

I am so sorry for your loss- it is always beyond excruciating. I have a personal experience with suicide that took years of therapy for me to understand and I, too, have worked 8 years as a special education teacher in a self-contained program for students with emotional disabilities. In that time I have learned the hard lesson that you CANNOT save anyone but you can give them a safe place for 6 hours a day, you can give them love and understanding and show them alternative options to paths they've previously chosen and you sometimes can even take them in... (long stories there.....) BUT! You cannot save them. Sometimes, they get saved; they save themselves, really, and you can feel that maybe you helped a little bit. But life on earth is pain and anyone who says differently is selling something.

You, Ravenwood, are a giving, loving person and the world needs more of you. Your energy, kindness and white light spirit I suspect is always present everywhere you are: at the checkout with the cashier who needed someone to actually LOOK at her and ask how she was that day, with the homeless person on the street whose hands you stuffed a couple bucks into even if others caution he'll spend them on liquor or the angry teenager who flipped you off as you walked by but who you stopped to say , "hey, what's up?" to...

Being who we are makes a difference. And there will still be tragedy and pain here on the earth plane. I suspect it's because we're here to learn something. 'Course, I gotta LOTTA questions for the Head Honcho someday. But that's a whole other complicated discussion.

Peace to you and all people in agony- especially emotional agony.

lisa

[Gfresh404]

In an attempt to answer your question "Why does their have to be so much pain in this world?"

I believe life is balance, no matter how unbalanced it may seem sometimes. There is so much pain in the world for the same reason there is so much joy. At least that is how I rationalize it in my mind. What's sad is that the news and media only seem to focus on the negative. For every story you hear about someone's life getting saved you hear ten stories about a bank being robbed, a murder, or a suicide.

[GottaSki]

:( :( :( :( :(

prayers of peace for he, his family and friends.

prayers for the gift of thoughtfulness to be brought to the children who grew up shoulder to shoulder with him.

continued prayers that all of our children have thoughtful guides to show them a better way.

[ranger]

So sorry to hear of this loss and will pray for the family. I had a rough childhood and many dark moments in my youth. My heart goes out to all. If only they could have seen the bright moments ahead.

Susan