Article November 6, 2006 Issue

SAFETY AT SCHOOL AND EVERYWHERE ELSE

with contributions from SARAH HYATT

In response to the shooting of ten girls at an Amish school in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, spirituality.com hosted a live online chat on October 3 with SARAH HYATT, a practitioner and teacher of Christian Science from Charleston, South Carolina. Also a Christian Science lecturer, Sarah has spoken to groups in homeless shelters, facilities for abused women, and juvenile detention centers. Formerly a teacher, she also has had hands-on experience in schools.

Can those of us not directly involved in dealing with a school shooting help to bring healing to all those involved?

After the Columbine [Colorado] shootings, a group of ministers got together and put out a call for people everywhere to pray in their own way every time they passed a school. Instead of having drive-by shootings, they said we needed to have drive-by prayer. And I think that that's an idea that's still worthy today. It's something that I still try to do. Each time I go past a school, I try to envelop it in my prayers for the safety of the children there, treasuring their innocence and their teachableness. I acknowledge that there is a universal God who is present there to establish safety, to keep them from harm. A little short prayer like that does so much to counteract the fear that we are tempted to feel when we think about these shootings being so random, and threatening a place that would seem to be safe—even in our own communities. So this is a way to help find the spiritual solutions that everyone is looking for.

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