Important headlines for June 8th – Remember when we simply stressed finals and dances?
Bottom Line: These are stories you shouldn't miss and my takes on them...
Excerpt: Just 12 school days into the school year, Gov. Rick Scott ordered all schools statewide to close to brace for a voracious storm named Irma.
But everyone agrees: The shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High in Parkland that left 17 dead and 17 wounded was the breaking point.
The 2017-18 school year has "certainly been one to remember," said Frank Zenere, a Miami-Dade school psychologist and district coordinator for a crisis response team that deploys to schools after tragedy strikes to counsel students and staff.
"One does not have to be in the midst of a tragic occurrence to be traumatized by it," he said. "We’ve had a number of very personal exposures this year, which I think makes it a different type of year than typical."
Hot Take: I'm not a parent and can't really relate to the level of additional stress placed on parents and students these days. But you don't have to be to know the answer. Generally, across the country, let alone in South Florida the answer is yes. And for all of the obvious reasons. I've cited it in data, I've discussed it conceptually and it's still getting worse. What's it? The difficulty of being a parent or a student. It's never been harder to be either especially for those under duress. Add in a hurricane and the proximity of the horror at Stoneman Douglas and it's that much worse. The question is what are we really going to do about it?
Are we placing a higher priority on morality in our society?
Are we spending less time on social media?
Are we becoming more physically active and less digitally distracted?
If anything, it's still going the other way right? And instead much effort is placed on attempting to control the evil that results from those who reach a breaking point but how much does that really matter given that there's little discussion of accountability. We can't control the hurricanes but I'm not sure how serious we really are about turning the tide in what ails our society either. Wouldn't it be nice if this school year was the most stressful and next year things improved? Are you confident that'll be the case?
Until tomorrow...