It is isn't it?

Coming into work this morning I made eye contact with one of the women in the parenting library off of my office. She scrunched her face up in a scowl, "I don't like the weather today". I nodded; "today is going to be a weird day". She dipped her head in agreement, "it is isn't it?"



Later on one of the mothers that I've been working with for some time was brutally attacked. She was stabbed repeatedly in the face and neck. It was the worst attack at our facility to date. I want to articulate all of this in some moving and poetic way, but it just sucks ass. The morning meeting tomorrow will be heated; there will be all kinds of talk about security, safety, what do we do, etc... At some point someone will realize that we have children that come here. They will turn to ask me "is it safe for them to be here". The reality that muscles its way to the front of my mind is "is it safe for them anywhere?". It's not what they want to hear, but it's the truth. This existence, in general isn't really all that "safe". Kids get shot, smashed against walls, shaken to death, beat against radiators, strangled...it's a part of this life. In this case it's a simple matter of keeping kids away from general population; which is what we already do. There will be huge repercussions because of this incident, we'll just have to see what happens. I feel tired on many levels.