When the unthinkable happens

It's been really long time since I've blogged but on Friday an unthinkable event happened.  When I first got to school I was already sad because it was the last day for two of my favorite students.  As other teachers know, we do get very attached to our students and often think of some of them as our own.  Then at lunch, I heard the horrifying news.  An evil individual had stolen the lives of 20 precious little children and 6 heroic educators.  As both a parent and an educator this crushed my heart.  I send my two children off everyday into the care of others assuming they will be safe and return at the end of the day.  As a teacher, I would like to think that I would be as brave and would protect my students the way those teachers at Sandy Hook did. 

This tragedy has thrown the nation into the gun control and mental illness debate.  I have mixed feelings about both.  The one thing that I do feel strongly about the noteriety that these shooters receive.  I think there should be laws against releasing their names.  I don't care about their names, I don't care about their childhood, or what went wrong for them.  All I care about hearing about are those 26 victims.  I have vowed to remember at least one name off of that victim list.  Below are the list of all of the names.  Please pray for their families, their school, and their community.  We as Christians know that they are in a much better place.  It is those left behind that are the true victims.

Charlotte Bacon
Daniel Barden
Rachel D'Avino
Olivia Engel
Josephine Gay
Dylan Hockley
Dawn Hochsprung
Madeleine Hsu
Catherine Hubbard
Chase Kowalski
Nancy Lanza
Jesse Lewis
Ana Marquez-Greene
James Mattioli
Grace McDonnell
Anne Marie Murphy
Emilie Parker
Jack Pinto
Noah Pozner
Caroline Previdi
Jessica Rekos
Avielle Richman
Lauren Rousseau
Mary Sherlach
Victoria Soto
Benjamin Wheeler
Allison Wyatt