On Friday morning, I was rushing to get to work. Fridays are one of my early days, so I was trying to get dressed and eat breakfast quickly. I had the news on in the background, and as I was about to step out the door, the news anchor mentioned something about a shooting at a school. They didn’t know if anyone was injured or hurt at that time.
Later at work, I was checking twitter and the news just kept getting worse and worse. It was a shooting at an elementary school, there were adults who were killed, there is an entire class missing and feared dead.
It was awful. I was trying to focus on working, but I couldn’t stop watching my twitter feed. Then I saw a tweet from my friend Heather. Her friend’s nephew was killed in the attack. That just made it hit home for me so much more. I don’t know Heather’s friend or her nephew, but my heart still broke.
I was hanging out with another friend and her kids that afternoon and it was nice spend time being silly and not focusing on the horrible things going on.
The monster who did this should not be acknowledged. Part of the problem is how the media will glorify the killer but the victims names are forgotten.
I won’t let that happen, at least in my mind.
I’ve learned that my friend’s friend’s nephew was named Noah. He had just turned 6 last month. His twin sister and older sister were in other classrooms and survived. His favorite color was blue. He loved Legos and superheroes. If you’d like to help Noah’s family, there are some ways to help at this link.
I read about two different heroic teachers who made the ultimate sacrifice to protect their students. Victoria Soto was 27 and was killed while she shielded her students from the gunman. Lauren Rousseau was 30. She was a substitute teacher at Sandy Hook. That hit me really hard. I am a K-12 substitute teacher for a public school district in Los Angeles. I would only hope that if something this horrible would happen while I was subbing that I would have the same courage that Lauren Rousseau had.
There are far too many victims to talk about each one. I found this website where all the victims are named and some memories of them are shared as well. I appreciate that the killer is not included on this list. I want him to be forgotten but the victims to be remembered forever.
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