MADNESS!!!

Today I watched a 30 second tragedy unfold.
It will stay with me for a long time.

I opened our newsroom e-mail..it was a video clip sent by an angry Mother.
It wasn't a complaint about late school buses,  a bad lunch or an incompetent teacher.

The video was something far more egregious..
It began with a teenage boy walking up to a sitting teenage girl.  Before you can comprehend what you're seeing he begins to slam his fist into every part of her body.
He lands blows to her head, shoulder, and face.
Then when you think it can't possibly get more 
horrific, it does.
The sitting teen tries to fight back, but her flailing arms strike him once maybe twice. By then he has snatched her out of the chair, slammed her against a wall then to the ground. He pounds her face relentlessly like a boxer.
All of this turns my stomach, but what breaks my heart is the fact that a classroom full of students are there, in person watching, laughing, excited by the drama. Not one of them steps in to stop it.
There is no teacher in sight,  it's as if the students were left on their own to challenge and destroy each other like something out of Hunger Games.
AS I WATCHED MY HEART BROKE, FOR ALL THOSE KIDS
WHOSE KINDNESS AND COMPASSION WERE SWALLOWED UP BY CALLOUSNESS AND CRUELTY.
HOW DID IT HAPPEN, HOW DID THEY BECOME INDIFFERENT TO WATCHING A FELLOW  HUMAN BEING INFLICT SUCH SUFFERING ON  ANOTHER??
I THOUGH OF MY DAUGHTER CASSIDY,  AND MY SON CONNOR.  I WONDERED IF THEY WOULD HAVE TRIED TO STOP IT? IF THEY WOULD HAVE RUN TO FIND AN ADULT OR WOULD THEY HAVE STAYED IN THE CLASSROOM AND WATCHED?

• MY HUSBAND I RAISED THEM TO BE COMPASSIONATE, WE RAISE THEM TO BELIEVE THAT WE ARE ALL GOD'S CHILDREN.

WE RAISED THEM TO FEEL EMPATHY FOR THOSE WHO ARE SUFFERING.

I KNOW IN MY HEART, THEY WOULD NOT SIT AND WATCH THAT SAD SPECTACLE AND THAT ENCOURAGES MY SOUL.
BUT I AM STILL SAD FOR THAT BOY AND THAT GIRL AND ALL THOSE KIDS IN THE CLASSROOM.
THEY HAVE ALL LOST SOMETHING THEY MAY NEVER GET BACK.
INNOCENCE AND EMPATHY.. AND THAT IS THE REAL TRAGEDY.