We Will Never Forget

It's been one year since the menigitis outbreak at my childrens school. Two children lost their lives, another child almost did but lost his arms, legs, and part of his face, and 7 more were hospitalized. I will never forget the moment I found out that the first child had died. I was teaching preschool when a friend came and told me that she had seen it on the internet. It wasn't long later that the second child had been reported dead as well. My wonderful teacher friends joined me in prayer for the school and for my child who was a kindergardener at the time. The school was waiting on the CDC to arrive so that they could start administering the antiniotic Rocephin which is extremely painful to receive. So here is my 6 year old, police at school, CDC authorites, and I can only imagine what else. My husband took her to stand in line for the shot and then took her home. They closed school the next day then it was spring break. After the break she received the vaccination for menigitis which isn't normally given to children until around the age 12. It has been unheard of for this strand to affect an elementary school like this and they have no idea what happen.

To this day I still don't know if I can fully put into words how I feel about what happened. I am relieved that my child was spared, feel guilty because she was spared, grieve for the lost ones and what their families are going through, sad for the little boy whose body has been forever changed, sad for those that placed blame on school officials when they did everything they could do, sad for what my child had to go through and how scared she had to be, and yet thankful that I was taught not to take anything for granted. You never know when you could send your child to school for it to be their last day.

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