School Daze

It's been a really tough day today.
First hour, right after we said the pledge of allegiance and had the scripture and prayer for the day, we received word that our teacher who runs the route from the North, in a Suburban, had been hit head on by a small car that veered suddenly into her lane. They were probably both going about the speed limit, which was sixty-five miles an hour. The other driver was killed, the teacher was pinned in the car, two of the students who ride with her were ejected from the car and were stretched out in the ditch beside the road. We called the students into the chapel and told them what had happened. They divided into small groups and started praying. The teacher's husband--who teaches and coaches at the school--left for the scene; the superintendent and principal left also. We didn't know who the other driver was. Every student was imagining that it was his or her parent or sister. Things were really tense for the rest of the day. We got updates frequently over the intercom. The teacher and both boys were eventually medi-flighted to the trauma center in Oklahoma City. Almost immediately people began to arrive there, including some of our former students who live in the city. They kept texting the students here, and the phone kept ringing.
After school we had concession stands for the last home volleyball game of the season. Everybody was subdued and stood around catching up on the latest. I had four mothers to help and all the juniors, but we kept spilling things and forgetting why we had run downstairs to the kitchen. We were...pretty shaken up.
At this moment I don't know if anybody is out of surgery yet.
I'm sitting by the phone.
In a school like ours, only 88 students, and eleven teachers, we are all pretty close.
I've taught with this teacher for the last ten years; she's my friend; I taught her children; she taught mine.
Life is fragile.
Still, it could have been much worse. Two of the students who normally ride that route did not ride today; one was sick; one forgot her notebook and had to go back home. Lots of parents just came up to school and hugged their kids.
Yes, I called mine too.