Northside Knows

I found - through a friend's Facebook page, of all things - this blogger who is a Mpls Northside activist. He's been writing about the student in my last post with some interesting information... check it out at Johnny Northside.

A particularly interesting thread is his 12/17 post & a slew of comments that follow it, including some that named the victim (& the likely suspect) long before the news did.

As always, the info is out there. Whether the community cooperates with police is another matter. Prayers.

More Dead Children

I've written about dead children a couple times before. I've come to believe it's an occupational hazard in education: I know a lot of children, so I guess I'm more likely to know one who dies.

Two died this month in Minneapolis that I didn't know, but I am still shaken. A 15-year-old girl was found dead, frozen, but likely beaten to death. She was a student at the school I worked at just two years ago. She was 7 months pregnant. (I have a goddaughter who was born 2 months early, so have to see this as two children.)

What kind of life was this girl living that it ended such?
What kind of person beats a visibly pregnant girl until she dies?
How did it happen that she had been missing from home for a month when her body was found, but she was not identified for two more weeks?
Where did her family, friends, teachers, etc think that she was?
What was it like to lose her life that way? (Don't be afraid of this question - be afraid if we DONT ask it.)

And just this morning I was researching black student achievement. Connection? We can guess what this child's test scores looked like.

Lord have mercy on us all.

2008

This year rocked. A few highlights:

* Met Mr Wonderful and got engaged
* Watched my daughter successfully navigate college life
* Finished my last doctoral class
* Turned 40 and went to Cabo with my best friends
* Drove cross-country with my daughter
* Saw Obama elected
* Continued to love my job, my neighborhood, and my family

Blessings to all as we head into 2009!

Post-Engagement, Pre-DC

So this isn't the Post from DC - but I've been bad about posting from the road recently, so thought I'd get one in early...

JP and I are heading out to DC on Friday so I can meet the rest of his family and we can show off the engagement ring. It will be a 2-day whirlwind of meeting people, and then I come home & he stays for a few days for a conference.

Gotta give him credit for a great proposal: at the table after Thanksgiving dinner, in front of my whole family! Creative and a good surprise, but not too over-the-top. Turns out they all knew before I did - it was almost like getting punked - but that's OK. It was beautiful.

I was amused to get an email from an ex (who saw our status on Facebook) asking if he should stop emailing me now... as if JP is worried about some random old flame. I said sheesh, we're 40 - we have too many exes running around to worry about any of them! :)