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Osbourn High School: Walk Of Rememberance
By Greg L | 3 November 2008 | Manassas City | 44 Comments
There have been two suicides and one accidental death among Osborn High School students in the past month, as well as a 26 year old who shot herself in front of her brother who is a student. Our kids have had to deal with these tragedies over the past month, but no longer must they do this alone. “A Walk of Remembrance” has been scheduled to honor the students of Osbourn High School who have so recently passed away, something that the community can participate in to lend their comfort and support.
The walk will take place November 4th at 10:00am. Those who would like to participate will meet on the football field and counselors will be available after the walk for students and staff. It is great to see that OHS has offered this “Walk of Remembrance” so that the healing at this high school can begin, and it’s a great opportunity for the community to help. Your presence in support of these students can make a big difference.
I hope you can attend.
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44 Comments
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It has been a horrible month for these kids. They shouldn’t be going through this at such an early age. My heart aches for the parents of these children and for the entire OHS administration, teachers, and students.
As of the latest staff meeting…If one chooses to engage in the walk of remembrance then all hours spent outside school are forgiven. However, if you are late to work or detained on your lunch hour b/c you are in line to vote then one must make up the hours. This is fair?
ateacher I can’t believe you would compare ANYTHING to honoring and supporting the students at that high school. I don’t think I would want my child being taught by someone like you. That statement is so selfish and I can’t believe you said it on a public forum.
P.S. You can vote before/after work.
WOW! I agree with Me-n-u!
As a STUDENT( showing my age) of the class of 1988 @ SJHS, we were faced with the tragedy of loosing 5 students within a MONTH time frame.
I remember walking the halls and the EYE contact that WE ( students AND faulty ) made, with the thought that this MAY be the last time we see each other.
PROTOCOL was blown /squashed.
The ONLY other time, I have seen that wake up moment/RESPECT, was on 911.
How SOON?- do some FORGET?
ateacher,
I am not calling you out. I am just making a point that life is precious.
EXAMPLE:
I was on my way to work this morning, and I got derailed. My first words and action were NASTY!!!! ( lol, I have a potty mouth-NOT proud) I learned during my Traffic tie-up,that SOMEONE lost their life! I felt like a piece of sh#@, complaining that I would be late ( EVEN with an alibi-media)
peace
ateacher -
I have to agree with me-n-u. That was a pretty self centered, selfish, post you wrote. I guess we can tell where your priorities are….and they are not with the deceased.
That was pretty ugly, ateacher. You simply cannot compare these things.
My children go to Osbourn, and my heart is aching for these kids and their families. Perhaps this is a good opportunity for the school community to take a close look at the small things they can do, day to day, that might make a difference in someone’s life who–unknown to us–may be contemplating suicide. For example, how does your child treat someone who just doesn’t “fit in”? Is that child allowed to join a conversation, or his he or she silenced with contempt and ridicule? Are children consciously and deliberately excluded, gossiped about at school and online?
As unconscionable and inexcusable as the Columbine shootings were, we need to remember that there were reports that the two killers there were “misfits” as well. No one knows what makes a person “snap,” and no one knows what the impact of some kind words and acceptance might have had on their lives earlier on.
I don’t know what the particular circumstances were for these children who committed the most desperate act imaginable, but I do think that how the children treat one another in school might bear some reflection. We shouldn’t just accept that high school is supposed to be an emotional war zone.
ateacher - how could you possibly comparing the time voting to a time for remembrance of children who are no longer with us?
Please tell me you don’t teach at Stonewall Middle or Stonewall Jackson High because I don’t want my children anywhere near your classroom or your warped sense of what is fair/important.
oops - compare
DPortM - I hate to say it - but I believe she teaches at OHS - where my son attends school. I hope to hell he doesn’t have her as a teacher.
ateacher must be a demoncrat - you know “me first” attitude. To hell with everyone else.
Actually, I just returned from the Walk and it was amazing. Hundreds of students and parents and community members were in attendance. When we finished the walk we all placed our flowers in the middle of the football field, joined hands and formed a huge circle for a moment of silence.
It was extremely emotional. I think it was important for the kids to be together and share/talk about their grief. Special thanks to all who took the time to attend.
I hadn’t heard anything about these tragedies…what happened?
Manassas City Resident, based on earlier comments, she is an elementary teacher in the city.
ateacher,
that was a pretty garbage post. Go back to the other board please. Please let you not ever be near children, as you seem to have no heart.
Wow, I remember growing up, my Dad sadly watching the lists of Vietnam War dead scroll by on the screen on the evening news and looking for names of his recently-graduated students. I thought about that when I read your post, ateacher, and was stunned by your lack of heart. I hope for all the world that you are not one of my children’s teachers.
ateacher, Will you fess up to which city school you work at? Maybe you are the teacher at OHS that I was told by two separate kids in two different classes, same teacher, that they were not treated with ANY compassion when they put their heads down and couldn’t work on Monday. They were repeatedly told to work even when these kids told her that their best/good friend had just died. No one needs teachers like that.
Where is YOUR compassion?
ateacher went berserk on me about six months ago, and put her name and address out there. She has some issues, this is such a sociopathic thing to say. A rational mind could not even form a comparision between the two events.
I remember that, jfk. Didn’t she invite you to stop by her house? Do you remember her name?
Not me, I think she invited Dolph or Leila (maybe the same person). She seemed to want to fight someone, though.
Personally, I do not believe that honoring suicides and mass murder solve anything. You can call me names and jab at me all you want, but that will not change the way I feel!
I had several friends take their life when I was in school and seen a the impact of a couple of suicides since. I grieve with the victims that feel the loss of their friends/family. Losing someone to suicide is just a bad as losing them to a mugger/psychopath/tragic accident, they are still gone and it hurts.
The school I went to didn’t tip toe around and didn’t make a spectical of the events when someone decided to be ulitmately selfish. They would announce that there were counselors available if anyone needed to talk. They would also work with you and your teachers to make sure you had time to settle back into classes if you were having a hard time. They had learned the hard lesson that most people have left in the past: When you react with spectical and elaborate ceremony over a selfish act, you may be the breaking point for causing someone to follow!
Since Columbine was brought up, I will address my feelings on mass murder/suicide for infamy. These people are the lowest of all! They deserve no respect nor mention by name. Most of these events are to go down famous. If you look at the recent tragedies at VA Tech and Trolley Square all of the actors said in part of their rants and manifestos that they were going to be famous just like the psychopaths at Columbine.
There is no age cap for people to “snap” as you say. There is no method for detecting those in trouble if they are practiced about hiding it from their family. There is no way for them to realize the harm they do to their community. There is no way for them to pay for their actions.
Suicide IS the ultimate selfish act. The person does not see the value of their life and ends it. The person does not care who finds them. The person does not care about the costs of the cleanup/burrial/travel by family. The person does not care about the hurt they cause their friends. The person does not care that they likely are perpetuating the chain. This is why it is a SELFISH act!
Honoring someone who commits suicide only adds to the next person thinking about it. They will remember me now are words that I have seen in a couple of suicide letters. We should support those that are suffering, but not honor those that caused it in the process.
Let’s return to the state where we used to be when things meant something, we had to work to get ahead, and liberties and rights were assured. Let’s not be afraid to stand by what principles and convictions we have left. Let’s remember who we used to be!
“Suicide IS the ultimate selfish act.”
I completely agree.
You are right that suicide is a selfish act and that it should not be glorified. But memorial services and funerals are more for the living than for the dead. They are all people have left when faced with the one thing in life over which they have absolutely no ultimate control. Please keep in mind that one of the children did not commit suicide, but was accidentally shot in a hunting accident, and the Osbourn children are shocked and upset.
And you are right that the Columbine murderers and others deserve no fame. That wasn’t my point. But they, like many other perpetrators of these kinds of horrible acts, were considered misfits. Children shunned them and ridiculed them. It’s a chicken-and-egg kind of thing–they might be a little “different,” kids make fun, and these kids never really learn how to socialize in an acceptable way because their peers won’t let them.
I stand by my assertion that a child who grows up ignored and ridiculed–if he or she already has a propensity for violence–will find more justification for violent acts.
The generation who is in high school and college now has had more “self-esteem” drilled into them than any other in history, and it’s great that our kids are so much more skilled in dance, music, sports, etc., compared to previous generations. But there are still kids who are left on the margins, and very often it’s these “superkids” who are leaving them in the dust while parents, teachers and administrators turn a blind eye. And then it is the “superkids” who are crying crocodile tears in front of the TV cameras when their victims have had enough.
I am a student at Osbourn, and I can almost pin point who ateacher is…probably the same teacher that told me wednesday that my friend’s death was no excuse to not studay for a test scheduled for wednesday…she shouldn’t be teaching.
hello heart broken,
Here is where the ateacher is that you think is so horrible… When I was at OPHS , a student chose to throw herself at a train during PE class, the student ran face first into the train in front of her classmates, with her PE teacher desperately running behind in an attempt to save her. I stood there and I watched her DIE and I can never erase that from my mind, not because she deserved to die, but because she chose to do so IN FRONT OF ME AND EVERYONE ELSE WHO HAD THE MISFORTUNE to witness it. I will NEVER forget what she did nor will I ever forget why she did it (father sentenced to prison for sexual abuse). So while you are thinking I’m some unthinking person, some terrible person, a person who in your word “shouldn’t be teaching” I can only only say you don’t know me at all. By the way there were NO ceremonies for this child, nor were any services offered for the witnesses. Chalk it up to th eighties.
ateacher,
Please seek some help tomorrow!!! You of all people should know how this is affecting the students. 20+ years later and you still have serious issues! You need to take a leave of absence and deal with it now before you loose your job (if it’s not too late already). Not smart to be posting these kinds of comments for all to see, including angry parents, principals, school board members ect.
These deaths have affected the entire community. I have a student in Osbourn who knew these kids and a student at Metz who knows their siblings. My wife is struggling after taking my children to funeral services for these children. Any funeral service takes it’s toll on you. But taking your children to services for their peers is especially difficult. It’s been very hard on them. I don’t need you making it harder on them in school because you can deal with it personally!
You have no business being around these kids now. Maybe you are not “some unthinking person, some terrible person…” but you will be remembered that way the rest of these students lives. You should be ashamed of yourself if you made it any harder for any of these students. GET SOME HELP!
I still remember her name 22 years later. She was not an athelete, or a cheerleader, nor did she have big hair. She was a person who fell between the cracks. She announced her suicide during her first class. No one believed her. All day she told her friends that she was going to kill herself and they either didn’t believe her, or they didn’t know what to do. The day she chose to die, she gave away her personal possesions, paid for her friends’ lunches and said over and over that she was planning to kill herself. Many of her friends blew her off as dramatic, some even laughed at her….but NOT ONE
knew what to do. Even those who believed her. You see anon, years later we now understand. Now we have the psych insight, we see what we missed, and we deal with that and then we move on. And no matter what we learned or how we have grown, we still have not forgotten her name.
It is also beneficial for students that in today’s society schools are more open to hosting such events as the remembrance walk. Not so long ago, student deaths were not spoken of in school except perhaps among the students. Now counselors are more accessible, and students have become more educated about suicide prevention. That is a good thing. I don’t ever remember posting that the remembrance walk was a bad thing, or that the students should not be remembered or mourned.
“As of the latest staff meeting…If one chooses to engage in the walk of remembrance then all hours spent outside school are forgiven. However, if you are late to work or detained on your lunch hour b/c you are in line to vote then one must make up the hours. This is fair?”
ateacher, this was your quote… you didn’t say it was a bad thing, but, wow, was it not appropriate…
If after what you witnessed ateacher and you ignore a student and you ignore a student in distress, or make a callous comment like get over it, you are contributing to the pain these kids are feeling. They want understanding and someone they can trust to be there for them.
You might be the one, since you don’t seem to have any compassion to send the next student over the edge. I hope that this is not the case.
Of couse they want understanding, and after the suicide, overdose, and three traffic deaths of people I either knew, or was aquainted with during HS I understand what the students are feeling, and I wholly agree that such rituals as a remembrance walk can be beneficial to students. I never once said “get over it”. My experience was what it was in an era when suicides or accidents were not spoken of. My point was that times have changed, and no longer are students to come to school and act as though a death never occurred. Perhaps my “is this fair” statement was out of line and inappropriate and I’ll cpo to that, but I was upset that before the walk of remembrance was organized, teachers were told that if they were late due to voting, then their lateness would be forgiven. Then on the eve of elections, the staff was told that ONLY teachers that went to the walk would have their time forgiven, and all those who were late due to voting issues would have to make up their time. In hindsight there were no voting issues in this area, and most lines were smooth and efficient but no one knew this would be the case. I was not the only teacher to react to the news with “what?” and wonder why two EQUALLY IMPORTANT events(for two separate reasons) had to be divided by MCPS into no penalty vs no penalty.
ateacher
I have researched and found no such story of a student in the 1980’s running in front of a train and killing herself. If you indeed did create this story, I have to say that those who have said you need some help are right.
All your posts make you sound like an angry, politically motivated, selfish person. You have not only an “us against them” attitude but have a “the world against me” attitude. Just in evaluating how you write and the words you choose, you very likely are a paranoid schizophrenic and should seek some medical assistance. Check out the Prince William County Health System at pwhs.org. And for the sake of the children, you should immediately remove yourself from the classroom.
As a student of osbourn who knew two of the people who died, one of the suicide victims and the accidental death victim, I don’t believe this upset has so much to do with your statement being wrong, as where you said it. This is an emotional issue that did not need to have politics brought into it. I have heard the story of the student running at the train from other teachers in the past. You are entitled to your opinion, but this was not the place to bring it. I attended the walk. I talked to teachers about the walk, some who attended and some who chose not to. None of them ever brought up the issue of not getting time to go vote. They all either took care of it before or after work or during their lunch and none of them had an issue with it. Let us grieve and leave politics out of it. and for posting what you did on an already emotional issue and making it more emotional I will stand with those saying you need help.
it was a very hard time for everyone when our fellow students passed away. Sometimes adults don’t know or misunderstand how hard it is to be a teenager. I feel for those people who knew the ones who passed away as I am apart of this school to and even if I didn’t know the students I was also in shock and was very upset. All of you who are grieving my condolences go to you from the bottom of my heart. This all made me realize that life is to precious to waste even a minute of it on hate. That’s why we should all love one another and face hate with love. Hate is easy , Love takes courage. We should all forget what separates us and focus on what brings us together. I only know that we are all one race and that is HUMANS.
To Head Dr: I also grew up in the area in the 1980’s and ateacher is correct. A teenage girl (I think she was 14) did in fact run in front of a train in front of her classmates. It was later discovered through her diary that her father had been sexually abusing her. Just because you can’t find it doesn’t mean it didn’t happen. While ateacher’s comments may not have been appropriate for this post, please don’t presume to know what/how other people are or should be thinking or feeling. Different people react differently to situations. That doesn’t make one right and one wrong. It makes us human.
Another student died
It has been brought to my attention that yet another suicide has occurred at Osbourn. I have not been able to locate the story itself as of yet, i believe it is very recent. I am saddened that Osbourn High is being continually tramatized by this.
These students need guidence and support. Something is going terribly wrong for these children. We need to, as a communtiy - find a way to detect and resolve their emotional issues. Something is going wrong and these kids needs aren’t being met. Lets come together to find the problem and create a resolution to prevent this from happenening.
My heart goes out to the most recent family who is a victim of this. My thoughts and prayers are with them all.
I remember when the girl at Osbourn Park ran in front of the train. I was a student at Osbourn on Tudor Lane at that time and that happened at the Osbourn (Park) On Euclid Avenue. When I was there at Osbourn, the biggest mischief was somebody from Osbourn Park coming over and putting something metallic across a suspended electrical line in back of the school.
I left Osbourn many years ago. Look, Osbourn needs some sort of a summit of some sort. Parents and educators have to come together with the kids. They have to sit down with the school board and they need to forge a way forward. These deaths and how to deal with this epidemic needs to be dealt with first and foremost before any other types of learning can go on there. Kids are not going to learn anything if their minds are pre-occupied with who is going to die next. That’s what they are thinking about, that’s what the hushed gossip is in the halls, that’s what the content of it is. The culture is that nobody is going to say anything about anything, snitches get stitches, yaddah yaddah. These kids shouldn’t be thinking about death, they should be excited about a positive life they can lead and what the future can hold for them. I was, even though it didn’t quite work out as I thought it would, I’m still here. Osbourn has a lot of seasoned veteran teachers there. A few are still there now that were there way back when I was there. I respect them. I did take issue with the psychologists though and the free flow of information between them and the Special Ed Dept.
Osbourn needs to look at it’s policies. It needs to look at it’s ability to recognize the troubled kids and get them sifted out quietly, quickly and discretely. Does the child need to go to a psychiatrist or a psychologist? Note” only one of them could prescribe a medicine. Home life versus grades, yes mine stunk, more could have been done and wasn’t but I was not alone. What would Fanny and Eugenia Osbourn have done if they were confronted with this? Osbourn High school is in need of some serious help. Kids shouldn’t be thinking about being dead. I hope that somebody is paying attention and gets Principal Conti the help he needs over there to get this dealt with. I feel for him. I know he is just beside himself totally bewildered by all this. I feel for all the people and all the families involved.
Let’s stop slinging the mud here. We don’t have the time for it. These kids lives are at stake and the stakes could never be higher. Everyone’s support is what is needed here not any arguing. Manassas has to get this epidemic beat. Period.
Mentorship programs, extra-curricular activities involvement as opposed to seclusion. Communication (I’m not talking about the digital kind) is what we need for these kids. Assemblies to talk about these issues, to show them not to be afraid. Once they can beat all that they will start to do better.
My thoughts and prayers are with everyone of them.
my sister qoes to ousbourn & the accidental death & a suicide were 2 of her best friends. accidental= was christian green, accidentally shot himself huntinq. & one suicide= jackson [?), hunq himself because he was beinq picked on for beinq qay [&) his brother was the only person he had [&) his brother said why dont you qo kill yourself cuz they started fiqhtinq [&) he went [&) hunq himself. =( today was jacksons viewinq . :[
imo, i wouldnt say why they made that final decision without knowing the true story. you arent them. you dont know why they truly did it. plus, the reason that the way that the students die arent in the obituaries, are out of respect for the parents. they dont want the details of their childs death put out there like that.
RESPOND TO DEIJA:
Get the story right before you make a public post about what happened here. Jackson did not kill himself for being made fun of and being picked on by his brother. He was actually a popular guy and everyone loved to be around him.
im a student at SJHS. i remember when christian green passed, the monday after it happened, one of the girls came into my frist block class crying so hard. i didnt know christian, but i’ve heard about him and the type of person he was.
also, i have many friends at osbourn, and i know that this has been a tough year for everyone. i think that some of the comments made on here were rude and uncalled for. you shouldnt be arguing about this stuff - you should be enjoying their memories for what it’s worth: love what you have of them. cherish their smiles, not fight over their deaths and all that. from personal experience, remembering someone’s smile is much more comforting - not happier, but comforting - than remembering their death. you shouldnt forget the bad, but you should learn from it and grow from it.
rest in peace, guys. you will never be forgotten.
I cannot explain in words how painful this year has been for us students at OHS. Parents and community might think it’s bad.. but being around the situation.. loosing your best friend.. is unexplainable. Both Christian and Jackson were amazing guys. I’ll never forget either of them.. I love them both so so so much. I wish I still had them both in my life..
yo that is sadd i haave lost my oldere bro