Bad Day

Last Wednesday I attended an after-school meeting with the probation officer, special ed teacher, and parent of a student that had been having some pretty serious behavior issues. The principal was there, as well as the assistant principal, the school counselor, and the special ed teacher from a neighboring school, as the meeting was held to discuss the possibility of moving the student to a different school that could more appropriately handle his behavior issues. Before the meeting we learned that the child's mother had 8 children, with 6 different fathers. The 3 oldest boys had all been in trouble with the law, and the 5 youngest children seemed to be heading down the same path. They all lived in a one room house. The meeting was extremely upsetting, like most parent-teacher meetings that I have attended so far this year.

Today I heard the devastating news that that mother was killed in a terrible car accident over the weekend. I can't stop thinking about it and trying to imagine what is going to happen to all of those children.

***Back after two hours because I'm still thinking about this. The worst part about the whole thing is that despite the fact that this mother looked awful, and maybe had too many kids that she couldn't provide for, she didn't seem like a horrible mother. She seemed genuinely concerned for her son's well-being, and spoke of all of the doctors appointments she had recently made for him. She talked about how important it was for him to finish school because she had never finished school and wished she could go back. It makes me sick to wonder if he'll ever go to those doctors appointments, or if he'll ever attend school again.