kiss your babies

Over the past week or so, I have been involved in helping our students cope with a tragic bus accident in which many children were injured and one little girl, unfortunately, did not make it. I received a call last Friday afternoon as I was leaving for the weekend and headed over to the crash site to assist with reuniting the uninjured children with their parents. Monday morning, I reported to the affected school to break the news to the children and assist in any other way I could. This would have been a tragedy anywhere, but in a town as small as Tallahassee, it hits especially close to home. After two exhausting days of helping the children work through their grief, I went for a run to let off a little of my own stress. I hadn't realized my own need to process little Ronshay's death and work through my own emotions. I'm certain that Ronshay is in a better place, free from pain, but my thoughts keep drifting to the 26 other children that have witnessed such a tragedy. I'll never forget their stories and illustrations -- some so detailed that I continue to have dreams about them a week later and find it difficult to get them off my mind. I'll never forget going into Ronshay's classroom, seeing her name written on the board, and having to break the news to her class.

So, I apologize for the sad post as I usually try to keep things upbeat on here. Even psychologists need to decompress sometimes and mine came to me in the form of a good run and a blog post. The point is: Ronshay's mother kissed her goodbye, sent her to school, and then never got to hold her child again. I cannot imagine a pain that deep. So, stop reading this and kiss your babies and show them how much you love them today!

For my psychologist friends:

We all hope this is never something we have to deal with, but it happens. Fortunately, not very frequently. For most of the other psychologists I work with, this the first we've had to deal with something of this magnitude (a teacher died of cancer at one of my high schools last year). We had the weekend to think about how to handle it, but that might not always be the case. If you find yourself in this situation, NASP online has a wealth of information including activities for the children, suggestions of how to handle the media (and boy were they out in droves), memorial ideas, and information for parents to help their children cope. They also have information on how to address suicides. I think it was well-handled by our district and the school's principal and would be happy to share in the unlikely event you find yourself in a similar situation. You know how to reach me.