Faith in our leaders of tomorrow….
When someone shares with you an experience which causes you to pause …..and think…that is a good thing.
When someone causes you to pause…and think….and they are younger than eighteen… that is a very good thing.
I had the opportunity last week to experience not only a “GHOST OUT” with our local high school, I had the privilege of witnessing several of our young Scott County High School leaders doing just that…
Leading.
For those of you like me, who are unclear what a Ghost Out is….
A Ghost out is where you have a student dressed as the GRIM REAPER go to the first am class of a cross-section of your school’s students and “lead the chosen students from class…to death”. For example, Our Grim Reaper went to the first period class of fifteen (15) of Scott County’s students and used his authority to draw them out of class, placing an X on the seat where that student normally sits.
Having allowed one of my sons to participate in this event, I can tell you….it was GRIM.
Watching Mr. Reaper as he went from classroom to classroom gathering up “dead” students was a parent’s worst nightmare.
But, it was powerful.
Grim…placed an X at fifteen different seats for each of the student’s six classes that day…
The purpose of this was to let the “dead” student’s presence be felt in each class by the “X marks the spot where _________ sat” reminder.
Grim.
But, it didn’t end there.
At a school assembly, these same 15 students were walked into the school gym….one by one….candle of life in their hand…until the Grim Reaper came to lay them to rest….literally…on the floor.
As each student “walked to their death”, their obituary was read. Each student’s “death story” was explained…this one died from a drug overdose, that one died from getting hit by a drunk driver.
It was painful to watch, the loss-representation of fifteen of our youth…laid out on the gym- floor/morgue.
It was painful to see some of Scott County’s finest, its brightest, its most athletic, its most musical, most talented, most kind, most generous, most courageous
Dead
On the floor of our gym
Powerfully dead
A poem was read….explaining how one student died unnecessarily at the foolishness of another person’s hand
And, the Grim Reaper looked on…
As it came my son’s time to “lay it all down”, I could barely watch, and yet, I had to….
My whole life’s energy has been spent on raising a Godly, strong and courageous son.
And, he was gone
Covered by a sheet
On the floor
I had to look away, as any mother would.
The loss of one single of our Scott County’s students is unacceptable to me.
Is it to you?
Watching the gym-morgue grow as each student “died” was painful.
Many of these kids I knew and loved.
Many I didn’t know, but now want to.
Our greatest asset….our greatest treasure….our greatest source of joy in this life
Lay dead on the floor of our gym….
I had to get up and walk away. It was too painful.
The most painful part….
What was I doing to help prevent this unnecessary loss?
What was Lesa personally doing to help prevent a SINGLE loss of our future generations?
And then, to my great relief, the assembly ended.
And, the fifteen came back to “life”.
I will never forget my son walking up to me post-death and hugging me.
And, I was grateful…
For his hug
For his life
For the life of his sister and brother
For this day
For the pain I felt watching this assembly
For my first exposure to GHOST OUT
For Morgan
For Morgan and her group of friends who so faithfully and purposefully put on such a display of the realities of what life, drugs, alcohol, foolishness can do
For Morgan and her group of friends who put on such a powerful event because their care for their fellow students was greater than their fear of being made fun of.
For a body of students who were BOLD
But, Bold in powerful ways rather than in foolishness
I am not sure who all was touched by GHOST OUT, Scott County High School, Friday, September 30, 2011, But I was.
I was touched by the assembly, by the students who were willing to participate, by the students who chose to witness Ghost Out by paying attention.
I was touched by the adults who came to participate, by the school leadership who assisted Morgan and her team in organizing such an event.
I was not only touched, but I was grateful….
At Scott County High School, our future is made secure by the talent of those who were brave, strong and organized in their effort to steer other fellow-students from those things which can kill…
Morgan told me early on (I hope this is okay to share) that each year as her group prepared for Red Ribbon Week (our week-long anti-drug campaign) that her fellow students would laugh at their anti-drug message.
In her face
With reckless abandon
And yet, Morgan looked me in the eye and said, “but, I don’t care. I know something that they have yet to figure out. Life is precious. Friendship is precious. Drugs and alcohol can destroy what years of living tries to grow”. “I take this stand in the face of ridicule….because I/we care about our Scott County students.”
I am not her mother, but I could not be more proud.
That, in a dark Grim-Reaper world, we have shining lights like Morgan and her friends leading their peers to better choices, better living, better decision making.
I am forever changed by Ghost Out
Had you been blessed by attending, you would have been too.
Blessings on your day,
Lesa
