I love my job - but days like today remind me how much responsibility my job entails... and how sometimes, I wish I didn't have to have that responsibility.
Sigh Sister Betty is in town and was going to come to work with me today. We left a bit late, stopped at Sonic for drinks, then stopped to pick up a donut. As we turn on the street to my school, I say to her, "I'm never this late in the AM for school."
We move down the road a bit and cars are stopped. We sit for a second waiting. I pull my car around and head up to the stoppage. I can tell something is wrong. I see a bus and a SUV, it looks like maybe there has been a wreck. I don't have kids and I don't understand the maternal instinct, but this feeling forms in the pit of my stomach. What if kids are hurt? What if, God forbid, someone has died? How am I going to stay strong? I have to stay calm and be strong........
...... which takes me back to a place where almost 2 years ago to the day I had to tell a friend and co-worker that her husband had died. I'll never forgot sitting there, telling her, feeling that every time she saw me from then on, I'd be the person who gave her the news that changed her life forever.....
I push up to the front where there are police and the EMT. I tell them I'm the principal and I need to know what is going on. They tell me there has been a head-on collision but no one is hurt. I rush over to the kids and check on them. They seem fine. As I go back to my car, I fall into the mud. I get up and keep going -no mud is going to stop me!! The bus driver is shaken. I see my AP and immediately I feel better. My AP is a great person and has become a good friend, but one of her many strengths is her ability to stay calm. I'm the firecracker, she is the calming force.
The bus and the truck are totalled. We get the kids inside where there are a few teachers there to feed them breakfast and take care of them. Our Deputy Superintendent shows up to help coordinate efforts and supervise the details of this situation. Our nurse rushes up, we get her and her kids square so she can go medically assess the situation. Our other teachers as soon as they can get parked and get inside.... go to work..... some are unloading cars, some are in the cafe, they are everywhere and doing anything that needs to be done. My aunt takes over the front door greeting duty since my office staff is handling phone calls.
The next hour and half goes by in what seems like a minute. The scene is cleaned, the vehicles are towed to our front drive, we get traffic reflowing, kids dropped off, fed, and delivered to class. By 9:20 AM, you'd never known what had happened.
Unless you could hop in my brain. I'm exhausted, but so grateful for everyone to be safe and for us to continue the day on as if nothing happened. Thank God for my office staff - they just jump in it and hit it full force!! I'm blessed to have an AP who is awesome at her job and teachers that really have a "Whatever It Takes" attitude. And they do it without creating all of this drama.... they are truly the best of the best... no lip service at all!!
We had a great rest of the day, including our weekly Mustang Corral..... where we did a Red Ribbon Week fashion show where I looked like Uncle Sam meets John Wayne Gacy. I think that may have frightened more children than the morning events.......
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