Joy of joys, there was a shooting between [local restaurant] and [local bank], two parking lots over from my JuCo. It was fatal. There was another related fatal shooting about a mile down the street.
I learned of this as I was passing the parking lot in question; police tape still flapped in the breeze.
Fortunately, neither victim was one of my students; however, one of my student's was friends with one of the victims and was visibly shaken in class today. I didn't even comment or correct the texting in class. Our JuCo doesn't have a counseling center, so if texting is helping the student cope, then I will pick my battles.
[Details significantly altered to protect my actual job/location, sorry.]
Oh, dear, Maybelle. That's scary. And yes, in such circumstances, whatever works for them, works. At least the texting student wasn't out obtaining a weapon to continue the mayhem (something that happens with disturbing regularity in the big city near me).
ReplyDeleteIt is so sad when someone gets killed, and hard for some of our students who have to deal with this with too much regularity. Many of my students have seen more death in their young lives than I hope to see in a lifetime.
ReplyDeleteI teach for two schools with significant online military populations. I keep wondering if any of my students have been killed. I _know_ some have had to deal with killing and having colleagues killed during class. But online it doesn't have the impact it would live, of course. I am in zero danger. I usually don't hear about their danger until much later, if at all.
ReplyDeleteSometimes I wonder if maybe we shouldn't construct a Virtual College of College Misery, complete with surrounding environs, in which to place our pseudonymous descriptions.
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