The lucky kids who survived the shooting massacre in Newtown, Connecticut three weeks ago returned to school yesterday.
Not surprisingly, the school district is going out of its way to provide a “normal” learning environment – complete with a new campus seven miles from the old one.
Which is why it seemed so farcical, if not irresponsible, that many parents not only followed their children’s school bus but even escorted them into their classroom.
I appreciate the natural worry that has these parents behaving like helicopter Moms on crack. It’s just that their overweening presence is clearly counterproductive and makes a mockery of the normal learning environment the school district is trying to create.
And don’t get me started on all of the armed guards who make this new campus look more like a police academy than an elementary school. Back to normal? I don’t think so.
Even worse, though, was the unconscionable spectacle of (trespassing) reporters picking off kids to ask “normal” questions like, “Are you afraid to be back in school today…?”
The wonder to me is that parents – who are ostensibly so concerned about shielding their children from any further emotional trauma – think nothing about propping them up before TV cameras to re-enact their fleeting, if not completely forgotten, grief….
Alas, I suppose, as Honey Boo Boo’s Mom demonstrates, kids are never too emotionally fragile to be used as fodder for reality TV: and, perversely, the more tragic their reality, the more captivating the TV … news.
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