A sad day in Denver

I’m sure that most of you heard about the school hostage incident that happened here yesterday. Well, unless you’re like me and don’t watch the news, but just barely catch up on world events by features on the MSNBC.com home page. Although the story was featured there for a bit.

As I was travelling back from Boulder yesterday afternoon, I got wind of this situation as it unfolded via the local radio station. I was devastated to hear that yet another lunatic was endangering the lives of young teens at school. As this city as slowly heals from the Columbine Massacre of 1999, which happened on my 20th birthday, the wounds were freshened yesterday when some nutcase went into a high school and took six girls hostage, releasing four over the course of a few hours, then shooting one before turning the gun on himself. The girl was only 16.

All I could think about as I was driving home (she and the other hostage were still alive at that point), was how terrified those girls must have been. To think that they went to school yesterday morning, the worst thing on their mind was probably an upcoming test or who was going to ask them to the homecoming dance. And in an instant, their lives were changed — one of them taken — forever.

I can’t imagine what the parents of these students must have felt yesterday afternoon. One school was evacuated, two others remained in complete lockdown for a good four hours. At the time, they did not know if their children were okay or not and could not even so much as pick them up. It’s a tragic loss. And the frustrating part is that the police will probably never know why.

To the family of the victim that was murdered, our hearts and prayers are with you.