OK..... I do really love my friends

but quit sending me email like this one...... http://kdka.com/local/School.Western.Beaver.2.706520.html .................... it is about a young man who chose to beat up a special needs student in PA while people (other children) stood by and video taped and then prevented the bus driver from stopping it!

Ironically his parents comments on the video stream were even more devastating!

I don't even let my typical four year old say thing like that "...I just had a bad day and didn't know what to do with my anger............" We would be in our room and skipping the thinking chair if this was her excuse for hitting her siblings!


!!!!This is no what I needed to see this morning!!!!

I realize, more than most people, that my children are still small and cute, but they will and are growing. The older they get the more likely people may have issues with them due to "whatever" the reason. that scapegoats for people's anger and frustration exist in every part of society and have since we crawled out of the mire ! BUT COME ON

Items like this really scare me, as a mom, as a human being and in general want to make me hide all my children away to prevent anyone from every hurting them.

So before I run over to school and bring them home. I am going to go drink a cup of really strong coffee, hug Jordan a lot (since he is the only one here at the moment) and try to remember that I now know some wonderful teenagers who love and respect all people. So I can then relax and let them stay at school and be happy kids.

I will keep repeating to myself that those were not the "normal" teenagers. The young girls who come and help me after school to play and engage the kids are! They are awesome and not unique to their generation, but vibrant and open to new experiences and fun to be around (even if they text faster than the speed of light)

I also know that in the 13 years I taught I had some really awesome adolescents in my life, who would have stepped in at this injustice (JM, SR, AH, WD, JC, spring to mind) no matter what it meant! These people have now become parents, and community members who would never teach something like this to your children.

I will cling to the hope that any of my six children would not have stood by and let that happen to any child, special needs or not, never bet on something like that or prevented an adult from helping this young man

And if they every did any of that stuff ON PURPOSE, they better not be expecting bail money from me or Eric!

And pray that the "enlightened American society" that we seem to profess a lot of ways to "solve" other peoples problems, might take a closer look at our own and work on solving some of ours.

For we can only be judged by how we treat our society's weakest members, then these young people did a disservice to their entire school, a generation and community that day. Because we have so far to go yet!