Danielle Shea, College Student, Calls in Bomb Threat…

This story has been haunting me for a couple of days now, since I first heard it on the news. Maybe it's because I've attended more than my fair share of graduations in my lifetime. I went back and forth about blogging it because I was a little too pissed to think straight. The facts of the story are that Danielle, a dropout of Quinnipiac University, failed to tell her mother she was no longer attending in school. Instead, she took the tuition money she was sending, about 55thousand dollars, and went about her business for the year. But then it came time for graduation. Her mother showed up along with all the other parents, to see her daughter graduate. Of course Danielle’s name was not in the program and she would not be called on stage. She had to do something. So she called in a bomb threat at the school library twenty minutes before the ceremony was due to start. I guess that didn’t cause enough of a commotion to halt the graduation, so she followed that call up with another call saying there were several bombs all over the campus, saying “You haven’t cleared out graduation. That’s not a good idea.” The police managed to trace the calls to her phone and found her amongst other graduates wearing a cap and gown she had bought. She was arrested and confessed. Her mother was in shock, but managed to bail her daughter out of jail.

Now where do you start with a story like this one? What kind of mind conceives an idea like this? They says she panicked when her relatives didn’t see her name in the program, but what did she expect? She had a year to come to this realization. She had a year to tell her mother the truth. Instead she waits till the last minute and almost ruins graduation for all the other students and their families. Fortunately the delay was only 90 minutes. However, her actions were disturbing and have resulted in her arrest and being charged with falsely reporting an incident and first-degree threatening. Personally, I don’t think this is serious enough and I hope they come up with more serious charges.

AND…if this wasn’t bad enough…in a local story not far from where I live, two Brooklyn boys are accused of poisoning their teacher with rat poison in her water bottle. Fortunately, the poison only caused her to become nauseated the next day and she wasn’t made seriously ill or worse. The boys were 9 and 12 years old and I doubt they will be punish to the extent necessary to teach them a good lesson. A teacher at the same school had reported something suspicious about her water to authorities three weeks ago, but nothing was done. It’s not until something actually happens that officials spring into action. In this incident, the parent of a child who witnessed what the boys did, reported it to the school and the teacher went for medical treatment after being advised.

What the hell is going on in today’s world? When I was in fourth grade the biggest offense students committed was chewing gum in class or taking a cough drop without permission. I remember clearly, one day in sixth grade, when a classmate was obviously suffering from a bad cold and cough. She took a cough drop. No one except the teacher noticed she had something in her mouth. The teacher went up to her desk and demanded to know what she had in her mouth. The girl answered a cough drop. The teacher told her to spit it out and confiscated the box so she couldn’t do it again. Her crime? She had failed to ask permission or bring a note from her parent. And this doesn’t excuse her, but she was the smartest student in the class/school.

Everyday we hear stories and shake our heads in disbelief. It’s not so much about what is becoming of our society, as it is how much worse can it get? These outrageous stories are coming up on a daily basis. Are we ever going to do something besides sit around and wait for the next school shooting? I never read a story that is about something being done to prevent these things, just more and more incidents.

The Last Graduation...

The Last Graduation…

A child has several graduations in their lifetime. My brother and I had a few from elementary school to junior high school, to high school, to college. That made eight graduations that my mother had to attend. But then I had the precious grandchildren she always prayed for, and soon they started graduating. My mother was much older by then, so attending graduations of any kind was no picnic. At one of my daughter’s graduation ceremonies from junior high school she lamented, “How the hell more graduations do we have to go to?” I couldn’t argue with her because graduations, while full of pomp and circumstance, pride and accomplishment, success and new beginnings, are really not much fun. And my children had even more graduations than I did, because now they start with pre-K ceremonies, Kindergarten Stepping Up, then elementary, junior high, high school and college. (Not to mention the five hour dance rehearsals that we had to endure for several years).

But this past Sunday, on Mother’s Day, my baby girl graduated from college with honors and a Bachelor of Science Degree majoring in Clinical Laboratory Science. Four long years of studying weekdays and every weekend and attending summer school are now over. I can only imagine what my mother would have had to say about this ceremony, after she would have told my daughter how much she loved her and how proud she was of her. I could almost hear her complaining from Heaven. Let me describe this ceremony and maybe you will hear my mother too! 

First of all, they make us arrive at 8 am for a ceremony that begins at 10 am, so the 3,000 graduates can be arranged in alphabetical order and begin marching out at 9:15 am. We took our seats on the “great lawn” and waited. The sun was not supposed to come out, but it did. The grass beneath our seats made my daughter and my brother’s allergies act up. The sun was getting uncomfortably warm and causing some of us to burn. My brother’s head soon looked like a ripe tomato from the neck up. And the ceremony hadn’t even started. I was getting very annoyed with the people in our row, who kept walking in and out of their seats and being very inconsiderate. My brother and I have my mother’s bad gene, so does my older daughter. I couldn’t help but think that if one of us said anything to these miserable people, the other two would join in and ruin my daughter’s graduation, as security would have had to haul us off the campus. We all tried to bite our tongues as we kept in mind that this was our “Last Graduation.” We had endured all the rest with some dignity and grace, and I couldn’t ruin the day my daughter worked so hard to get to. 

My mother’s bad gene makes one very irritable over the slightest things, especially when the sun is beating down on your head. The band had A LOT of time to kill while we waited, so they played some random songs. I guess they couldn’t find anything more appropriate with all the millions of songs out there. So I think I am hearing things when they start playing “Anchors Away.” I am having a WTH (what the hell) moment! What’s the use of complaining I keep telling myself. Just be quiet and this will all be over at 12:30 pm. Finally, at 10 am, as promised, and after 45 minutes of the song, “Pomp and Circumstance,” while the graduates marched to their seats, the ceremony begins. Speeches start. And, a nice little surprise for me! My old Speech professor that I had almost 40 years ago, was making a speech! Professor Greg was the nicest professor I had had and, as much as I dreaded Speech when I found out I had to take it, he made it the most fun class of my college career. The speeches all ended about 11 am. The keynote speaker was the head coach of the basketball team. He talked more about himself than he did about the graduates. It was very disappointing. I guess they couldn’t get someone…anyone…more relevant. Not only did he talk about himself, he compared the graduation to being in the final four of a basketball playoffs. Ugh!

At 11 am they begin to call each and every graduate up to the stage for their “diplomas.” Every one of the three thousand names were called as they paraded rapidly across the stage. Actually, I was surprised and even thrilled at the fact that the ceremony was actually going to end when they promised. By 12 pm everyone was antsy and had had enough. We were sitting out there in the sun for 4 hours already. The graduates in an even worse situation because they had to wear their caps and gowns over their clothes. At 12:15 we decided to get out of the sun and go stand in the shade. People had been leaving, and graduates had been leaving, all while the ceremony was still in progress. The school had no control over the chaos. There were people everywhere. Each of the 3,000 graduates got five tickets for a potential of 15,000 guests. We tried to find a spot where we could tell our daughter to meet us. Eventually, by 12:30 she had found her way over to where we were standing. 

Trying to get off campus in a crowd that size was nearly impossible. At one point we had reached an impasse and were engulfed in a crowd that wasn’t moving. We kept inching our way through every chance we got. Finally, there was a clearing ahead and we sprinted forward to an opening and we took it. Now we were headed towards the car which would take us home to the delicious tray of lasagna I had prepared the day before. There was no point making reservations to eat out. It was Mother’s Day and on top of that there were communions and graduations going on all over. I couldn’t be sure of the time we would be done. So I was smart. I decided we would eat at home this week and go out to celebrate next week. And, my husband picked up a Baskin Robbins ice cream cake for dessert!

The “Last Graduation!”  I know my mom would have been happy to hear those words. I also know that she would not have sat still that day. She would have had plenty to say, and in her nice outdoor voice too. The only thing that would have saved her from being thrown out would have been her advanced age. My mother would have been 96 years old. And after she got done complaining about the graduation, she would have started in on my lasagna, which could never be as good or better than hers. And then she would have started in on the lousy ice cream cake that they don’t know how to make and we don’t know how to pick out. That’s what was missing Sunday…my mom. She may not have been there physically, but she was there in spirit…a very loud spirit.

My Daughter's Last Final...

First of all I apologize for being missing in action the past couple of days. This has been an unusually busy time and I was helping my brother in-law move…packing and unpacking, with my husband. I was too tired to write anything coherent. Hopefully, I can get back into the groove.

Today is my younger daughter’ last final. I have been worried about her graduation since she started this extraordinarily difficult, medical technology program. Her high school had not prepared her well for college. I still recall her first day and the way she walked into the house pale and overwhelmed by the work. It was a big adjustment and it had to be made. She had to learn time management and study skills practically over night. The course work was challenging, her biology professor and his tests impossible. I was into high level worrying. Her first biology test was a disaster. We later learned so was everyone’s test, and he has to curve his exams. I started to ask my daughter about considering a plan B incase this didn’t work out. She told me she was prepared to do whatever it took to succeed in this program. I told her that I would support her in  any and every way I could to help her. I called the director of her program and explained my concerns. She told me my daughter has to do three things: study every day, ask the professor when she has a problem and go to tutoring if she has difficulty with any subject. So I told my daughter what it would take to succeed.

From that moment on, just a month or so into college, my daughter took the bull by the horns and did what she needed to do. She studied nights and weekends, she talked to professors and she went to tutoring when needed. She went to summer school to take classes to lighten her workload during the semester. One February she was walking around with the flu, studying for exams. I thought she had a bad cold. Finally I took her to the doctor and she was diagnosed, given medicine and told to stay home. She had to go in the next day for a three hour science lab. She didn’t want to have to make it up. So she went in that Friday afternoon. She rested Saturday, Sunday and Monday. She only went to her most important classes that week. She failed her math test, the one she took the day I took her to the doctor. She went in to explain to her professor that she had the flu that day. The professor was very nice and said if she did well on the next test she would drop this grade and count the other one twice. She kept her promise. 

I kept worrying that all this work was impossible. I knew her senior year was coming. That is the year they do rotations. Two eight hour days of school, with 8 to 9 classes, and three eight hour days at the hospital. Tests every Monday and Tuesday to study for all weekend. No vacation time to speak of or days off to catch up on rest. Four long years of nearly nothing but work. 

Now she is down to her last final today. I am relieved for her. I can’t wait till she can relax her brain and just not have to think about next week’s tests. She still have to apply for her license and prepare for the licensing exam. Those things will take a few weeks to set up, so she won’t have too much pressure on her for a while. 

Graduation is this coming Sunday, Mother’s Day! She will be graduating with her Bachelor’s Degree in Clinical Laboratory Science with honors. She is a member of the honor society. I could not be more proud of her. I saw all the work it took to get here. Sometimes it had me in tears, She put in such long hours, she never complained, never took days off. She gave it 100% the entire time and excelled as one of the top three in her graduating major.

I can’t wait until she comes home today! I am going to smother her with hugs and kisses. I am going to spoil her for days on end. I am going to let her sleep! And soon we will go out and get one of her graduation presents…a new apple laptop computer! Then, at some future date, she will get a new car, just like her sister did. Hopefully, she will get her Medical Technologist license soon and then a job at a place where she likes the people and enjoys working. My baby is all grown up and I love her so much.