Tough week to be weak

Our community and students lost a young man this week to a terrible accident. That student was Conner Weeks and he was in my class at Hardaway and in Jessie’s class at Shaw during the last 2 years. Below is the announcement to teachers about the incident.
“ I regret to inform you that a terrible accident occurred off campus that involved current and former Hardaway students. Conner Weeks attended Hardaway for nearly three years. He was attending Shaw this school year as a Senior. He was accidentally shot last night. He did not survive. He died at the Medical Center early Sunday morning.
The shooting was ruled an accident by the Columbus Police Department. As of this evening, no crime has been committed. The incident occurred at the home of one of our students. The young men were handling a gun that was believed to be unloaded when it fired. There may have been more students at the residence when the incident occurred.
Conner had many friends that are current Hardaway students. He was very popular with his classmates. I am requesting help from the MCSD Crisis Management Team (Guidance Staff). Counselors will be available to speak with students on Monday.
This incident will be on the minds of many of our students. On Monday, it's important to get back to our normal routine. If a student needs to talk with a counselor, send them to Guidance. There is no need to discuss the incident in the classroom setting.”
My surprise this week is the way we must as teachers handle situations like this. We must put aside our emotions and ties to the situation and be understanding but not have an opinion and stay completely neutral. If we have a tie to the situation then that must stay private even to the students and faculty that know of our ties. We must be compassionate to the students but not council them. We must leave the counseling up to the professionals. Don’t get me wrong I understand this position and why we must comply. It was just a shock at the way teachers have to handle this type of situation and something I was ill prepared for. It was an awareness of the liability issues that allow teachers say only certain things that surprised me also. Tough day seeing these students grieve about the loss their friend and not be able to console them other than to say this was a tragic accident, I’m sorry for your loss, and if you need to talk with a counselor you may go to the guidance office. I was able to do this most of the day until the last class in which most of his friends and the friends of the other boys were in. Still didn’t talk about it much other than to say sorry and give the grieving nod to the kids so they knew it was a loss for me also and i could feel their pain.
The surprising good that came out of this is that three rival schools and a community have come together to support each other during this tragic time.