Have you lost a student?

[rachel23]

So today I found out one of our second graders was killed on Saturday. She was roller blading, fell in front of a taxi and it ran over her head. Today the mother came to the school in traditional black clothing and walked through the hallways wailing with a trail of sobbing second graders behind her clutching her picture. I was wondering if this is pretty common ceremony and if any of you had to witness it before. Everyone in the school was sobbing.

[Jediwish]

I asked my coteacher about your situation and she said the most common way to mourn for the death of a student is to put a white flower on the student's desk.  Mourning is a quiet thing from what she describes.  Not sure why the mourning is so open in your situation.

[natale_laplante]

I'm so sorry for that! :( Luckily, I can't say that's happened to me. I'd be really upset if it did. I would imagine what you saw is a traditional mourning ceremony of some kind, but I wouldn't really know.

[jmw9887]

I have had some of my kid's parents die at at, what seems to me, unreasonable ages. But I have various friends who have had their students pass on. 3 have fallen out of their apartment windows, one got really ill, and another , from what my friend said just died. Parents came to her hagwon said the kid died. I have luckily avoided these experiences, and hopefully I'll be able to keep it that way.

[minamteacher]

All you can do is continue teaching, I feel for you!

[doughplayorange]

so difficult, i feel for you.
regards

[rachel23]

I asked my coteacher about your situation and she said the most common way to mourn for the death of a student is to put a white flower on the student's desk.  Mourning is a quiet thing from what she describes.  Not sure why the mourning is so open in your situation.

She did place the white flower on the students desk. After reading your post I asked my coteacher and she said that Japanese cultural influence is why people were mourning very quietly but now as they are rejecting Japanese cultural traditions people want to express themselves more and that it is normal for the families to mourn like this for up to five days.

[RangerMcGreggor]

That type of stuff is pretty common all over the world, though I don't know if it's common here.

[keleidoscope]

Once of my students died when I was teaching in Japan, we were all pretty sad.

I can't actually remember why now, something medical, though he wasn't that old (40's?) and seemed to be in pretty good shape.  His wife was a student too and they always took class together and were so cute.

I couldn't help but wonder if they could ge their pre-paid classes refunded.  Knowing the company, I doubt it.