Since Tuesday was a school holiday for Knox County students, Sarah had two friends spend the night. At the same time that we insisted they quiet down and curl up in front of a movie, a group of high schoolers who had been celebrating the school holiday wrecked their cars in almost the exact spot where Noah gets off the bus every school day. When the girls finally awoke on Tuesday, I talked to them about the car accident, drinking and the parents who lost their only son. Just a few short hours later I had to talk to Sarah again. This time it was about a shooting at a nearby school. I feel like I spent the entire day trying to get a few simple points across to Sarah. Unfortunately, I think Sarah felt like she was lectured all day. To make matters worse, while replaying the day’s events last night, I recognized that my school shooting talk was nearly identical to my suicide talk and pretty close to my drunk driving talk. While Sarah probably had the listening devices in her head turned off because of my monotonously boring talk, all I wanted her to hear was that she can come to me with ANY problem. The parents of the teenagers driving drunk would have happily driven their children home. The families affected by the school shooting would have listened to the angry and unhappy teen shooter before he picked up the gun. Those teens didn’t call out for help. Will my children ask for help?