Keep your hands to yourself

I am just sick. I arrived to school this morning, late because my children had left the barn door open and I had to turn around and walk back home (I was halfway to school), shut it and then re-trace my steps... to find out we had an emergency staff meeting. My eyebrows went up, in the Italian way that they do, and I was greated with, "Oh, you didn't hear? We had an attempted abduction yesterday." I've since been told that the look on my face said it all. Apparently I was one of but 3 people who didn't hear the news this morning in their mad dash to get ready for school. I do have 2 other people I am responsible for getting out the door in the morning, and I slept a few minutes late. So shoot me.

Anyhow, turns out that one of the girls in the 4th grade, who I did reading with last year, and still work with for a few minutes each morning, was riding her bike near our town rec. area, and a masked man wearing dark clothes grabbed her off her bike and dragged her into the woods. If I had to choose out of our student body someone to be abducted (which I wouldn't, I'm just sayin is all) she would be the one I chose.
 She is street smart, and tough, and not someone to mess around with... for reason's that are best left unsaid.. but if anyone could get away from a kidnapper it would be her. And she did. She kicked and screamed and wriggled her way right out of there and ran like her life depended on it. Fortunately some of the boys in the 5th grade were at the rec area and they went off to the PD and foolishly off to see if they could get a look at the guy while she went into a neighbors house and called 9-11.

This is not how I want to start my Monday, after having walked through the door late and arguing with my son in the middle of the sidewalk about why the door wasn't shut. I don't want to believe that this could happen in my small town. We moved out of the city to get away from stuff like this. I don't want to think about how the police said that being the perp was on foot... the chances of him still being at large are very good. Fabulous. This could be a local, or some random transient passing through. The dark clothes and mask make it a little more scary. Obviously this was planned.

So this was the buzz around school all day, between the kids and the adults. The little girl walked right into the building today, and the first person she met (who was standing right near me) was greeted with "I'm the one who almost got kidnapped!" What do you say to that? It's a horrible situation to be in all the way around, and I can only pray it has a positive outcome and they catch the bastard.