Community Sadness

I tend to keep things pretty light-hearted around here, but occasionally, something serious does come up. Yesterday was one of those days.

In case you aren't local (I know the incident made national news as well though), there was a shooting at a local school, Millard South High School. One principal was hurt, and a vice principal was killed. By a student, who later took his own life.

While I don't know anyone at Millard South personally, I feel very connected to the Millard district since I lived there when I lived in Omaha. I also know of people who go there (relatives of co-workers, mostly).

To say this is awful is an understatement. For the poor woman who was killed. For the man who was injured. For the parents who lost a son. For the students who had to go through the whole incident. For the parents who worried about the safety of their children. For our community, as we are rocked once again by a senseless shooting.

Omaha is a big small town. Those of you who live here know that. Everyone's connected and there's the sense that we are all part of a small community. So it makes perfect sense that we're all shaken by this, and reminded of what happened at Von Maur just a couple years ago.

When the Von Maur shooting happened, I think everyone in the city had to come to terms with the fact that this kind of thing can happen in our community. I know I did. I'm experiencing that feeling all over again.

From everything I've heard, the administrators throughout the Millard district were amazing through the entire incident, including the lock down in all the schools afterwards. It's heart-warming to know that there are such competent, caring, responsible individuals working with the children in our community every day. I've also heard the Omaha Police Department worked swiftly and efficiently, and kept the situation as safe as possible. I feel blessed to work in a community where we can trust that law enforcement will keep us safe and protect us from the actions of those we can't understand.

Please pray for everyone affected by this terrible tragedy, and hope for peace in all of our communities.