Please, let us grieve.

A horrific tragedy happened in our community yesterday, and we need time to be sad about it.

We want to be upset and cry.

Right after it happened we were being bombarded by questions from around the world about what happened.  We don’t know what happened. It just happened.

Give us some time.

Right after the shooting, people on both sides of the gun issue were pushing their agendas every chance they could get. People can be so callous. Those comments don’t sit too well with people who are grieving.

Also, people need to stop spreading rumors, gossip and hearsay on social media. That is so insensitive, to put it mildly.

Other people are telling us to heal. Maybe we don’t want to heal yet. We want to mourn. So many people want things to get better so quickly. But we want this to matter. We want to feel this pain. We want this to never happen again. One way to do that is to feel the hurt. If we move on too quickly, it’s like this doesn’t matter – but it does.

We applaud the Maryville School District for canceling school next week. They get the magnitude of this tragedy. It shows the students that. Moving on to “normal” after something like this does not show the world how tragic it really is.

If you believe in God, pray for the victims of the shooting. If you don’t, do something else to help the Marysville-Pilchuck community. When people are grieving, they feel the love of such actions.

There will be a time when we will want to ask and answer questions about campus security, bullying, teen relationships and so much more.

But right now …

Give us some time.

Please, let us grieve.