Jacket in the School Grounds

I sit here less than a week into the stay-at-home orders. Since October, I have been working at home most days of the week, so things are not that different for me. My wife and our daughter are working through this being at home all day. Even here, there is an advantage since this would have been their spring break. It will be interesting how things play out over the next few weeks as my wife starts teaching math via distance learning, and our daughter starts lessons through the same method.

The hardest part for us has been the slowing down of life. Normally with work, school, dance, scouts, church, and other activities, we are always on the go. We are getting used to a quieter lifestyle. We are trying to keep a schedule. We take family walks. We are reading our Bible. We eat dinner together as well as lunch and breakfast. So, the “hardest” part is actually a good thing for us. We are strengthening our bonds. We are doing what is asked by staying home and not spreading germs. Not too tough. However, I must be careful that I do not take what is easy for us and think that it is the same for others. It is not. We are lucky.

As we went on one of our walks, our daughter an I took a turn while my wife went straight. The two of us talked as we walked the empty streets. The only noise was our voices as we talked about what cleaning needed to be done or her studies. We walked by a school playground. Our daughter stopped and looked through the fence. There in the middle of the pavement of a school that had been closed for 5 days laid a jacket. We assumed that it belonged to a young girl. Our daughter just stood there looking at the jacket for a minute. She finally looked at me and just said, “That’s so sad.” Her voice matched her statement.

I finished off our walk thinking of the jacket. Thinking of a child who left school one day forgetting her coat, and probably thinking she would get it the next day. The girl might have other jackets, I don’t know. But in my mind, I picture a young child sad that she no longer has her favorite coat. It sits there in the middle of the school grounds getting rained on (and we have had a lot of it over the last week). Peacocks (yes, we have them) might walk over it and rip it with its sharp talons. Most likely this jacket will never keep a child warm again.

This simple coat made me aware of the troubles that so many people are experiencing. I am not talking about the shopping or the lay-offs or the stock market. I am talking about the safety of the children. Perhaps it is the former teacher in me that takes me there, but I walked home worried about the safety of the children. The children and others.

Based on the orders to stay home, the end date will be more than a month after the original request. That means a month of children being stuck at home and very little outside contact. Most of the children will be safe, but there will be so many who will be in harms way. Teachers see so much. They see the hunger, the fears, the hurt that children carry, but now there will be no one to see.

I fear for the children who suffer abuse at home. Who will be there to protect them? Families are going to be stuck together in their homes. Stress of what is going on in the world will affect so many. With stress comes so many other emotions. I fear that those pent-up emotions will be released on to the innocent child. I think of the child who might have used school as a safe place to spend hours away from harm. One who no longer has that safe place with which to go.

This staying at home will get to each of us. At the same time, we need to find a way to protect those who cannot protect themselves.

I am normally one that tries to offer solutions when I find a problem. Today, I am stuck. I have no solution for this one. We need a way to ensure that while families are dealing with the current struggles that they have a way to be safe.

I know that people make fun of those who say prayers are being offered, but for now, all I can do is pray that those children will make it through this and be able to return to their safe place.