Tonight I found out about something tragic & horrible, this coming off of a frustrating couple of days at work. I gun man went into a highschool in Bailey, CO today and took several girls hostage in a classroom. Apparently, they had hostage negotiators out there along with law enforcement. During the press conference I just saw, the Sheriff said that it was very apparent that the girls were in grave and eminent danger. So, they went in with the SWAT Team. The gun man first shot at the SWAT Team, then he shot one of the girls in the head. After that he shot himself. The girl died a short time later. They haven't released why the man took them hostage yet, still under investigation.

It makes me very sad about this world we live in sometimes. Today, I was called out to a classroom, one of my preschool classrooms on Ft. Carson Army Base. When I walked in and found the classroom in slight chaos with children pushing and not listening to the teachers. The lead teacher had sat a child down by himself for a Time Away. She was standing over him telling him that he couldn't come back until he was ready to behave. Her words were intense, so controlled. I knew she was near losing it. When she saw me walk in, she looked at me and said she is about to give her two weeks noticed. When I looked at her teacher assistant, she looked just as strained and tired as the teacher did. I had been called by a parent concerned about what her child was learning in school. Kids were biting, hitting, and expressing themselves with words they shouldn't know yet. Some of the kids were even flipping the teachers off! Preschoolers!! I stayed and wrote some observations and talked to teachers and some parents. I was mostly distressed at how quick to judge everyone was at that point. The teachers both talked about quitting and wanted to have the parents pick their children up when they act up and take them home, short of being expelled, which is what they would really like to do. The lead teacher told me that the school actually expelled 3 kindergarteners recently for bad behavior. She also talked about how parents don't "parent" anymore & kids are not ready to be in school when they aren't ready to follow rules and listen, not to mention the kids who came in not even potty trained at 3 years old. Then there is the parents, who want all the neg. behaviors to stop immediately, and if it all didn't stop right now they were going to pull their kids out. Even though I explained to one parent that it is the beginning of the year kids, especially really young ones, need time to learn how to be social with others, follow rules, learn how to get along & be safe. I also had told this mom that even though I knew the teachers were working on it, I would go out and observe that week to see if I could support the team more. I stressed that I didn't have any quick fixes, that it would take time to get the behaviors under control. I asked her for that time, and suggested that she and some of the other parents could try and volunteer when they can to help support the teachers. She said she would. The next day, yesterday, that parent did volunteer, then pulled her child out of the program at the end of the day. She did not return today. I have parents blaming teachers & teachers blaming parents, and no one will let me even begin to help. It scares me that things can be this way in preschool. It all starts here, the gateway to the school system. All I can do is pray, and hope that God will work through me in someway. Even on this frustrating day. Then there was the News Report, and I am sad........I really don't know what else to say today. Hopefully I will have a better grasp on all this tomorrow. Hug your kids, girls. You all are amazing mothers and have great kids!! A lot of the kids in this particular classroom has a parent Deployed. Other classrooms face other factors. Ok, enough. I need to just go to bed.
PS: Please disregard words spelled wrong. The Spell Check doesn't seem to work on this.