Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:And if your kids are merely friends of friends, perhaps you need to monitor who is discussing it to the point of making them "scared out of their minds." It's not something to be making drama about and riling up friends of friends. I assume these kids are all about the age of 10. Kids like drama and feeling like they are news reporters. They are likely repeating what they hear at home.

No you have this wrong. The facts, all by themselves, are quite enough to frighten kids. And adults. But definitely kids. Please don't assume that the friends of the child are being overly dramatic.

My 10 year old doesn't know. (I get news online so we never have a tv on for that) If he/she did, it would be because a child said something.

+1. never have the news on. I did not discuss it at all, my kids are in DCPS and as far as I know they do not know anybody who knew the family. what happened is unbearable for an adult and I think cannot really be told to a child that young. if the dead by was a classmate, I think we would probably say that somebody wanted to steal something from the family and killed them, without any details. after Sandy Hook, my oldest (then 7) asked questions because apparently I was discussed at school. she seemed concerned that it could happened at her school and that she was in danger. I was still in shock myself, I think I told her that it was a very exceptional event with a very sick person who had died and that her school was safe and that she was going to be safe. I am not sure if I said the right things but I really do not know what to say otherwise.

Anonymous wrote:We said, "A boy and his family was killed last week, it is different than the one in Potomac. The boy is a student at St. Alban's, 4th grade. (my son's have friends there and figured they would hear it sooner or later) Did you hear about it? (they said no) It is was really terrible and sad and extremely unusual, which is why it is all over the news. If you want to talk about it let us know but it is not really polite to discuss this at length around other people you don't know because somebody may know the boy and it might upset them."

They asked, how did they die.

We said, "It's not completely clear, stabbed or hit real hard. Then they burned the house, people do that to hide evidence."

That was about it.

That's a lot of information to give a child who might not have even heard about it if you hadn't brought it up.

Anonymous wrote:Does anyone know how they are handling it with Phillip's classmates at St Albans? Are the kids being given all the details as they come out?

I would hope not. I think it should be treated as any other loss the kids might experience if a classmate died of an illness or an accident. Keep it to "we loved him, we'll miss him, remember him fondly." That's enough for any 10 year old - especially coming from the school.

Does anyone know how they are handling it with Phillip's classmates at St Albans? Are the kids being given all the details as they come out?

I don't know what they are doing at STA and NCS but at Beauvoir the administration has suggested that this story is not appropriate to discuss among young children. They have had resources in place all week for parents as many current ones know the family. Obviously it will/needs to be discussed with older kids, especially classmates of the victims, but I agree with and appreciate how it's been handled at Beauvoir.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:I don't watch or listen to the news much for this very reason so to the poster who went all crazy about someone not knowing: maybe you should re-think your reaction. Some people stay away from the news on purpose. US scare tactics when it comes to what's reported in the media doesn't sit well with everyone and some of us prefer to not know things that serve no other purpose than to scare us. Thanks.

Then why did you ask what happened?

I didn't. That was a different poster...