Trauma in Sandy Hook Elementary

I learned of this tragedy as my school bus fleet prepared for our annual Christmas luncheon.  We held a moment of silence, and then we shared our company with each other, with a renewed sense of life and an awareness of how it could end quickly.  It reaffirmed for us why we do what we do, to get our precious cargo to and from school safely.

There are numerous pitfalls that can come after a tragedy like this.  The first is to be reactionary.  The smoke has barely cleared, literally, and I've already see some of this; 

'Put all schools into lockdown!'

'Ban all guns!'

I heard it described succinctly by Dr. Greg Sipes, a psychologist, on local radio.  He described left-brained and right-brained thinking.  Left-brained thinking governs logical, rational thinking, while the right-brain governs emotional thinking.  The reactionary examples come from the right brain.  It is a natural response to trauma such as this, and should not be scorned or dismissed out-of-hand.  However, we need to keep it in perspective, and keep the left-brain engaged as well.

This is hard to do with the pictures we are seeing of horrified children and parents that are coming out of Newtown, CT.

The second pitfall, exacerbated by the first, is to react based upon early information.  This information will often change as it is vetted, corrected, then disseminated.  We should then study the information, and get to understand the ramifications before we make changes.

Sandy Hook Elementary School has suffered a horrible tragedy at the hands of a gunman for as yet undisclosed reasons.  20 children are dead, as are 6 staff members. 

Pray for the victims, and let the information develop.

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