I found out recently that the 16 yr old son of a former teaching colleague has disappeared in the small town where I used to teach. I found this out through Facebook, which seems to be the hub for a lot of the news I get. I dutifully re-posted the photo, and the hope that the boy would find his way back to his family, and then another Facebook friend posted and made the connection to the mother with whom I used to teach. And that's when my heart started breaking.
You hear about teenagers running away from home. You hear about kids who go missing. You hear about these things - and they always happen to someone else. You fear them, and then chastise yourself for buying into the media hype about every parent's nightmare. Yet this time, I can't get it out of my head - that this happened - is happening- to someone that I know, in a town where I lived.
The obligatory Facebook page has been set up, and over 1000 people "liked" it within 24 hours. Students skipped school to help in the search effort (as they should) and teenaged friends of the disappeared boy are writing poems and scribbling "hope" on their arms and posters, in the hopes that this boy will come home.
One person recently posted a poem indicating that this boy has written farewell notes to his friends before leaving (he apparently left home Sunday evening, and wasn't back by the time Monday morning came around - I can only imagine his parents' concern as they looked in on an empty bed...). It disturbs me greatly that his disappearance might have been planned, that he may have thought no one loved him or cared. His friends seem to be writing about how much he is loved, which makes me wonder if he'd been depressed and felt isolated and lonely.
It makes me want to hug my own kids - which I have done. Perspective is a wonderful thing - I just wish I could get it more often without someone else's tragedy behind it.
http://www.680news.com/news/local/article/304999--ground-search-continues-for-missing-uxbridge-teen
2 comments:
The teen years scare me so much. I haven't yet heard any kind of advice to help protect your kids during these years - it seems like anything can happen to anyone. I just try not to think about it too much.
The good news is he's home now - apparently returned last night. No details on what happened or why.
I totally hear you about what you can and can't do as a parent. Given the way my kids are now, I will never ever ever accuse someone of bad parenting due to the actions of their children. Those darned kids are autonomous beings, and we can raise them, parent them and guide them, but at some point (and I'm thinking that's from about age 4 or 5...), they do make their own stupid decisions no matter what you did.
Sigh...
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