I am glued to the TV tonight watching the coverage of horrific events in Newtown, CT. My heart breaks for all involved. The victims and their families, the survivors, the responding police/fire/ems/counselors/Danbury Hospital....
The whole thing is surreal yet I look at a small town like that and I understand how easily we all believe we are ready because we do emergency drills and becuse we also believe that it is far away and it wont ever happen where we live.
Newtown is in my home state and I have nieces and nephews in school in CT....my heart stopped when I saw the first report. It restated when I saw it was not where they live.
Then I started to think about what I would do if it happened in my school. I have the shakes just thinking about it.
Am I ready, really ready????? I dont know, I think I am....
What would i do? How would I react? Scares the ever living stuffing out of me that is for sure.
He was a known face to them, the son of one of their teachers. How many times has your kids or spouse or friends stopped by to see you at work?
We will never know as the (alleged) shooter is said to have killed himself after killing 20 kids and 7 other adults. He sounds like he had some mental health issues...how many times have we hears that in these cases?
How many times have we heard how our mental health system is broken, that we can name some kids in our school who we think may have the ability to do this???
I know I can.
Please , Please, let us hold these precious little children and the others in our hearts.
Let us not forget the impact on our 1st reponders. These are their friends, family and neighboors (small town of
If you have children, hug them extra tight tonight, tell them you love them.
Advocate for improved mental health care for all. We as a profession can do that collectively.