Editorial — The Five Steps in grieving the loss of school

WEDNESDAY MORNING EDITORIAL — There’s something just really weird about driving down Kamloops streets and not having to contend with jaywalking teenagers, crossing guards at elementary schools and being extra careful at crosswalks because some kid will forget to hit the pedestrian light.

We say that with affection. At this time of year, children and youths cluttering up the streets on their way to and from school are as natural as autumn leaves and chilly mornings.

But it’s as if some apocalypse had occurred and the streets have become barren of life. One almost expects to see them overgrown with vines and weeds from lack of use.

It’s a form of withdrawal, the absence of something we take for granted as a natural part of life, as essential as air and water to our sense of well-being. It is an emptiness.

Psychologists have, no doubt, studied it. It’s the classic five-step grieving process.

First, of course, there was denial. It could not possibly happen. They wouldn’t really let the schools close, would they?

Then came the anger, finger-pointing, the blame game.

And then, bargaining, or weak attempts at it. We’re well past that now, edging into depression.

The fifth step is acceptance. We aren’t there yet. Please don’t let us accept this situation as the new normal; don’t let us stop missing those young people on the streets, particularly in the school zones.

Once that happens, all is lost.