Guest Editorial: Caring For Our Children

 — by a long-time Island Mother —

Lying in my tent at night, the stars out and bright above me in the dark night sky, I hear the sound of a mother screaming, a door slamming, and children crying. I live in a neighborhood on Orcas. There are lots of kids here. There are many families caught in the court system, divorces waiting to be processed, children without dads present and others living with grandparents, parents sleeping in different beds.

On the other hand, I star-gaze my eyes around our island to the “stable families.” They stick closely to their worlds, careful for their children not to mingle with children who might have “bad behaviors” or “less than ideal family circumstances.” Their desire to protect their children is surely understandable. But there is a problem. Our children intermingle here on this island. Even if they don’t attend the same schools, the schools here are somehow connected, in small ways, a friendship here, an after-school program shared there.

And the children, they affect one another. Just as in my neighborhood the screaming of a mother to her children every night foreshadows the rough and mean play in the community playground by that child during the day with other children, so too does it spread like the wildfires around the country [and] right now as well, into our schools. So, a school counselor is supposed to solve this and student /teacher ratios of 30/ 1? Who is looking out for our children when the parents are unable to? And let’s look at it more clearly. It’s very rare to not find a two-parent working family these days. Our expenses pretty much demand or at least require it.

I’m frustrated tonight. I care about my children. I care about our collective children. And as much effort as our community puts in this direction, with countless people giving of their precious time toward this issue, it is still here.

(Editor’s note: We have made an exception and posted this anonymously, as we feel the message and the messenger deserve to be considered regardless of personality.)