Brucie,

I congratulate you for taking the time to discuss this tragedy with your students.

There have been drive-by shootings and a number of other tragedies that have occurred near the elementary school where my daughter teaches,including a boy from the school who died of a heart attack while playing football with other children who also attend the school. My daughter discusses these tragedies with her class. However, through conversations with other teachers and other children enrolled at the school, she has learned that few other teachers take time from their schedules to discuss these tragedies.

I guess teaching to the test was more important [sarcasm] or the teachers didn't know what to say.

This makes a bad situation worse since children & youth need opportunities to talk about these kinds of occurences.

Similarly, in the beginning of the school year at the school where my daughter teaches, two men associated with the school committed suicide. One was a new science teacher who had been at the school for 3 days. The other was a little league football coach who had been working with the students for years. The school system brought in a counselor for the science teacher who nobody knew and not one for the football coach..It would have been too much like right to have counselors available for the students for both of these tragedies.

And again, few teachers discussed either tragedy in class or in after-school groups.

Teachers and school administrators need to do a better job of meeting the needs on children in these non-academic situations.

Again, Brucie, thanks for giving your students an opportunity to learn and share information and feelings about this tragedy.

We need more teachers like you!