Reflections on Virginia Tech

Hello everyone,

I started to write about something else, and then I learned about the shootings at Virginia Tech.

Every time something like this happens, an almost predictable range of emotions races through educators. There are shock, horror, anger (directed at all sorts of targets of varying importance), fear, and sadness.

And the questions: Why? What makes someone do such a thing? Could it happen here?

Could it happen at Garfield?

Of course. We live in a world where such things are possible anywhere. However, we do everything we can reasonably and legally do to keep our students and ourselves safe. We have regular weapons searches; we use metal detectors in random searches; we follow up on every rumor of weapons or fights. It could almost be said that Garfield is safe precisely because we believe that a danger is possible. I have honestly thought that we are safer here, in the midst of a sometimes troubled, violent neighborhood, than we would be in a quiet suburb where everyone believes in immunity from such things.

You may find yourself going around the next few days with a heightened awareness of the school. You may be hyper-aware of your students’ behaviors. You may be nervous about the community. Don’t worry about the feelings; they’re normal.

Realize, however, that some of your students may be feeling the same things or worse. If they need to talk, let them. Don’t be too hard on them if their talk veers into the inappropriate (help them to be appropriate, but don’t condemn them when they are not).

A lot will depend on how the story unfolds in the days and hours after I write this. I have no way of predicting how you or your students will feel tomorrow about it, because it’s happening now. I can say that a wise teacher will be ready for some wild emotional rides if the story finds a way of hitting home to students. At the very least, I am certain that many students will be truly frightened to go to college, and that fear will need to be addressed.

In a broader sense, helping your students deal with things like this is likely one of the reasons you became a teacher. We are here to help young people cope with real life in real ways. When real life thrusts itself upon us, we should be willing, if necessary, to put our sometimes arbitrary, mostly artificial constructs aside and grapple with reality.

And we should be willing to do it right in front of our charges.

Jeff Combe