Another Lovely Day in Highland Park

 See anything unusual in this picture?*

My class was in the computer lab working on our math program.  Usually the kids are completely engaged and focussed--what could be better than playing computer games at school?  In the back of the room, I saw a hand go up.  It was Eric, one of the quiet boys in my class.

"What's the problem?" I asked.

"Ms. A., yesterday I was playing in the yard after school," he started.  Boy oh boy, stories that start out that way never end with a happy face.  Always that moment of normality before the blast of cold hard reality destroys the veneer.  Eric continued.

He was playing outside his house by himself when a big black car drove up.  A man got out of the car, pulled out a gun, and started shooting at a house a couple of doors down from where Eric was playing.  Eric ran into the house, told his mom, and hid.  He was worried that the man with the gun would start shooting at all the houses.  I told him that the man was surely looking for someone in particular and wouldn't shoot around randomly--but it sounded really scary.

Eric had nightmares that night.  Four men were outside shooting at his house.  He couldn't get the dreams out of his head.

I don't live in this part of the neighborhood, but I know it can be scary. During the day we get tidbits of the gang wars.  Just this last Tuesday we had a lockdown shortly after school let out.  All of the teachers were in the library in professional development.  This lockdown came suddenly, no warning of helicopters.  That usually means that a shooting or incident has taken place on the school's perimeter (apparently there was a shooting about a half block away).  We locked the door of the library and waited until the announcement came that the lockdown was over.

These incidents might be isolated, or they might be the start of another run of shootings like we had in 2009.  Either way, after the doors close at school, those kids go home, play in unsafe yards, endure sleepless nights, and wish they lived somewhere other than Highland Park.

* Yes, that little buglike thing hovering in the sky next to the middle palm tree, above the playground, is a police helicopter.