Death of a Student...

The day before school started a young mother drove Draco, her 6-year old son, into school for open house. On the way, their car was was struck by another car and before Draco could meet his first grade teacher he was killed instantly.

Three weeks after that, Susan, a prominent 44-year-old woman in our community and mother and step-mother to five kids in my district, was killed in an automobile accident on a rainy morning.

Four weeks after that, a former student, Ryan, (May graduate) was killed in an automobile accident in Springfield.

Last night, three-weeks after Ryan's death, a junior student, Zach, at Willow Springs High School was participating in a National Bullriding Competition in Arkansas. He was thrown off and trampled by the bull. Zach never regained consciousness.

Aside from losing a loved one, I'm not sure there is any greater pain than seeing those I care for and love in pain. I'm posting just to ask you to keep our school in your thoughts. This most recent death will take a huge toll on our teachers and students. I know some of you have been through the death of a student and know it is a tough thing to deal with in the classroom.

Several of my colleagues, never having dealt with the death of a student in their own classroom, will struggle. I've been on the phone this morning with many of them talking them through a variety of ways to handle this and be able to grieve for their own loss. None of us want to lose students, but as I mentioned earlier, we hate the pain death, especially unexpected death, brings to those who are alive.

I wanted and felt comfortable to write this here because I know you are all supporters of teachers. If you have a moment, steer your thoughts to our teachers, students and families who have struggled with death in our district this semester.

Thank you.