A Tale of Two Boys.

This is my 300th post. Which means I should have something exciting or profound or funny to say, right? Unfortunately, I'm not sure that's happening tonight.

I went on retreat this weekend. It was lovely and wonderful and I'll tell you more about it later. Unfortunately, I came back to bad news.

Sunday night I saw on the news there had been an accident in the small community where I've recently begun working. I prayed the two young men involved weren't some of our students. Turned out, they were.

On Sunday night, one of the kids on my caseload accidently shot another kid in the head with a shotgun. There are lots of rumors and speculation in this case right now, but as near as I can tell, my 13 year old core kid had gone duck hunting with his father that morning. When they returned, his dad left two shotguns sitting in the corner of the living room, mistakenly thinking neither gun was loaded. Tragically, one gun was not loaded, but the other was. Later that evening, my kid was joking around with his 12 year old friend, trying to scare him with the gun, when the gun accidently went off and shot him in the head.

This is what I came back to on Monday. Both are students at the school I'm working in. The young man who was shot is registered in my after-school program, but rarely (if ever) comes. The other kid is one of the kids on my caseload. For both kids, this is a tragedy of epic proportions.

The boy who was shot was life-flighted to OHSU (the big hospital) in Portland. Yesterday he was upgraded from Critical to Stable Condition. My understanding is he's being kept in a medically-induced coma for a few days to minimize swelling on his brain, but as of right now, doctors are very optimistic about his prognosis. They brought him out of the coma briefly yesterday and he was responsive, squeezing the doctors' hands on command, etc., but unable to speak at this time. It's probably best he gets to sleep through this whole nightmare, at least for now. Obviously he has a long, hard road ahead, but especially this early on, this is all great news.

For the other kid, truthfully, metaphorically speaking, I would say he's probably still in pretty critical condition. The very fact that he's on my caseload should speak volumes about what this kid is up against--the kids on my caseload are considered "at-risk" kids, for one reason or another, and before any of this happened, he was, hands down, a kid we were really focusing on--his life is no picnic. Right now he and his family can't stay in their home because the media is camped outside. They are staying with relatives out in the middle of nowhere to keep him safe and to protect him and his family from the media and any public outcry. As of right now, the determination has been made that coming back to his school--where he has friends and support--is probably not the best idea for him (and even though it's hard, I think this is probably the truth). I can't even begin to think about how devastating this must be for him. This kid already had the deck stacked against him--this doesn't help.

Yesterday was the first day of a new semester at our school--a day that should have been filled with excitement, endless possibility, and hope. A time for new beginnings. Instead, it was filled with tragedy and confusion. And in accordance with the families' wishes, the kids were asked not to talk about it. Teachers were told not to release their names to maintain privacy and confidentiality. The one thing the kids wanted to do was talk about it and they couldn't. Unfortunately in the absence of information, there is rumor and gossip. Kids started taking sides, even though it was an accident. These things are hard to swallow when you're just a kid. Life is hard sometimes. And messy.

Last night the name of the boy in the hospital was officially released to the media. Today was a different day. When the kids saw his name confirmed on the news, word spread like wildfire and amazing things started happening. His friends knew that Austin's favorite color is purple, so they asked everyone to wear purple in solidarity. Between text messages and facebook, word spreads fast among Middle School kids. At school today, plans were made to create banners and cards to take to him and his family at the hospital. At lunchtime, giant sheets of purple paper were rolled out on tables for kids to sign. Supplies were provided for the kids who wanted to make cards. Teachers cut and folded purple ribbons for the everyone to wear, and they were snatched up just as fast as they could make them. But you want to know the coolest thing I saw? A few of his best friends took a piece of masking tape and wrote his last name on it, then wore it on their front and back like you would see on an athletic jersey. Before you knew it, everyone was asking for masking tape. Even kids who didn't know him wanted his last name across their shirt. Then kids started asking if they could donate money for the family, and they started pulling out their allowances and lunch money and dropping it in a box. Pretty cool for a bunch of 12 and 13 year olds, don't you think? Kids are shockingly resilient and empathetic in situations like these. The principal and one of the counselors packed everything up and took it up to the hospital this afternoon. That kid has a lot of amazing support, and so far, all the news has been good.

Meanwhile, there's another family, whose names have still not officially been released, hiding out in the middle of nowhere, waiting for the storm to pass, hoping it will. And there's another boy who probably wishes he could sleep through all this, too.

So today, please hug your loved ones tight, tell your family members you love them, and if you have guns, please keep them in a safe place where your kids can't get to them.

And please, pray for both these boys.