Heartbreak, Tragedy for High Schoolers

(Aired on September 27, 2010)

I have mostly fond memories of my time in high school. Didn't get into too many scraps. Wasn't teased too unmercifully, although it certainly wasn't perfect. I have mostly fond memories of my kids' time in high school. Only one of them got into much trouble. I was probably too over-protective of my kids, and have often wondered if I was too protective.

But seeing things such as those that have happened to a couple of high school girls in the past three weeks, maybe not. And the sad reality is that no matter how over-protective you are, you still can't stop everything. It was probably not a smart move for a young girl to go to a rave in Maple Ridge a couple of weeks ago. Doped up from the date rape drug, she was gang raped, and to make it worse, pictures started showing up on the Internet. While the girl's judgment in going to the party might be considered suspect, considering most of those things are problems from the get-go, what happened to her was devastating and tragic, something she will have to live with the rest of her life. Bad judgment or not, there's no reason for that kind of attack.

If there's a good thing, I suppose, it's that at least she will have a life to live. Not so fortunate was a grade 10 student in Delta, killed on the weekend while walking through a park in broad daylight. Details of both these tragedies are still sketchy, but, by all accounts, these were not bad kids. They were happy kids, enjoying life, probably going through the same issues many teens do, emotional upheaval, peer pressure, we've all gone through it. As parents, we hope our kids survive those rough years intact, and move on to their adult life.

It's hard for us to comprehend the tragedy these two families, and many like them, are going through. I guess the only thing we can do is to keep in touch with our kids as best we can, protect them as well as we can, and hope for the best. Sometimes, unfortunately, our best isn't good enough.