It has been a difficult week at Mountain View High School. In two separate tragedies on Tuesday and Thursday, two of the students died. Tuesday night, three 15 year olds were driving in a truck too fast and rolled it over. One of the boys didn't have a seatbeat on and died. Last night, a 17 year old girl was hit by a train. Just weeks ago, four Mountain View students were driving at 3 a.m. too fast, lost control and had an accident. One of the boys wasn't wearing a seatbelt and was very seriously injured. It has been said by other students that he is paralyzed. All of these incidents are such tragedies but they probably should have never happened in the first place. Why is it that no matter how much we get the word out that kids should wear seatbelts, there are always those stories about people who are thrown from cars in accidents because they weren't wearing one? How did three 15 year olds get keys to a truck to get into an accident in the first place? Even if the driver had a permit, there should have been an adult with him and those other boys should have never been in the truck with him--even with an adult driver supervising. The teenagers out on a double date at three a.m. should have never been driving at that time of night. Teenage drivers have curfews in Washington state. And if the rumors are correct, why did a 17 year feel she needed to end her life by walking into the path of a train? And if they aren't correct, why was she walking on the tracks in the first place? It all just seems so senseless.
Grief counselors have been at school two days this week--Wednesday and today. The kids wore tee-shirts in memory of the boy killed Tuesday. The pep assembly was canceled due to the girl dying last night. There was a moment of silence for both of them at the Mountain View-Union football game tonight. Union students wore blue hearts to school and the game tonight and had a banner "U Loves the View" at the game. They also gave hearts to the Mountain View students at the game that said the same thing. It was touching that the rival high school gave so much of themselves to honor Mountain View in their time of grief.
We need to hold our kids close and be so thankful they are alive. Kids make poor choices all the time. Fortunately, most of the time they survive those mistakes. But there are those times that lives can be taken away in an instant.
This is so sad, Shannon. I totally agree about kids needing to be more responsible. I think part of the problem is that kids think they're indestructible. Perhaps a little 'scared straight' program might help. But it's so sad, especially for the families & the friends. My heart goes out to them all.
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