Oh What a Day!

It's one of the worst nightmares you could ever have. Never did I think it would happen in our little community.

While I was getting Jack his breakfast this morning, soon to take Macy to school, I heard Chris's ambulance pager go off. Soon after, he came running down the steps. I thought he was going to a car accident, but instead he said "something's going on at the high school!" Gulp! The middle/senior high school is about 3/4 of a mile to the right of our house. Macy's school is about 3/4 of a mile to the left of our house.

I immediately turned on his scanner and listened for news. I heard "stabbing and possible shot heard". How's that for scary? My eyes immediately started to well up. I had to leave the room so I wouldn't scare the kids.

What should I do? I tried calling Chris on his cell phone, but he must've been in a bad spot. I called my friend who's kids go to school with Macy. I could hardly get my words out to her. We decided to keep the kids home until we heard more. I finally then got in touch with Chris and he said it was all under control at the middle/senior high and that it was okay for Macy to go to school. He couldn't tell me much at that time except that there was a bomb.

Sirens were screaming so loud, news helicopters were circling overhead (as I type this, the NBC 10 news van out of Philly went down my street 3 times). Police with bomb sniffing dogs came from the Poconos and Harrisburg, the bomb squad was here and the Haz Mat team.I tried to pull as much info as I could from the scanner and news websites. No one really knew what was going on yet. I was geting the best info from the scanner, of course. I always complain to Chris that he turns the scanners up too loud. Well, this morning, I had 2 of them up as loud as they could go!!

Chris got home around 2pm and I confirmed what I heard with him. A 13 year old went to school this morning normally dressed, apparently mad at the school for some reason. So, he took it upon himself to bring knives and chemicals into the school in a duffle bag. He was in his classroom, right as school was starting, jumped over some desks and tried to light a bomb on fire, a fight broke loose, he pulled out a knife and slashed 3 people. Luckily they are not seriously injured. A school official quickly detained the kid and the police got in there and tackled him. They found a bag of knives outside of the school as well as a glass bottle with a clear liquid in it plus a respirator mask in a bathroom. That's why the hazmat team was called in. It turned out to just be gasoline. The kids were evacuated quickly to the athletic association just down the street from the school and then bussed to Macy's school where their parents picked them up.

I also found out that we live in the block behind this kid. It could've been one of the many kids that walks by our house everyday. Maybe I've said hi to him, maybe I've seen him at the grocery store or at the park and playground. Why did he do this?

What is going on these days? Why do people do this? Is it really worth it? I can't believe this happened. It really can happen anywhere, can't it?
As we are sitting here and Macy saw the news van go buy, she asked what it was. I told her what it was and she said "hey, the news was at my school today". I was looking on one of the news websites and she saw it and said "that one, I saw the number 6 on one of their microphones". She said they didn't come into the school. There are just kindergarteners and 1st graders in her school and they seem to know nothing about it. I'm very glad for that.

Here is a link to the news story.
Local News Story

Here is to a calmer tomorrow!