April Fools?

When I woke up this morning and saw the pretty snowflakes falling down, I thought for sure Mother Nature had her days screwed up. This isn't April Fool's Day! It's April 21st!

Then I woke up a little more and remembered I live in Wisconsin. It would be more unusual if this type of thing didn't happen. Still, I am not a morning person and wasn't finding the humor...

Sometimes I don't know when to take a joke (just ask hubby). But then, I don't always know when someone is joking. It's probably not safe to assume that just because I am occasionally sarcastic (OK, more than occasionally) that everyone else is, too. Sometimes they probably mean what they say.

Sometime last week, there was a buzz started in our community involving some potential violence set to happen at our high school Monday -- which happened to be the 10th anniversary of the Columbine tragedy.

At this point, who knows if someone was joking and it escalated out of control from there. But by yesterday afternoon, hundreds of students left the high school after they and their parents became concerned about the rumored threats.

Apparently, early last week, school officials had already requested additional police presence at the school Monday because it was the Columbine anniversary. That, combined with rumors that passed through Facebook pages and text messages throughout the weekend, caused anxiety. By early afternoon, about 600 of the school's almost 1,500 students went home.

To whoever started the joke -- whether a real joke or a real threat: Not funny.

My heart fills with a sense of dread just thinking that there are potential threats to our children's safety. It shouldn't be that way.

Just last week, Carter had a "lock down" situation at his school because 2 fourth-grade girls went missing while out on a gym class jog through the school forest. Did they get lost? Were they abducted? Police were called and the area searched. In the end, we find out the girls are safe ... because they decided to skip out of school and go to a friend's house nearby. This starts in fourth grade?

Obviously, when people are acting selfish and doing or saying something for their own pleasure (or sick enjoyment) it affects a lot more people than they realize.

I may dislike Mother Nature's cruel joke to dump snow when May is next week, but I'd take that any day over a threat to the safety of the big boys and our May Day baby.