sad day

Hello everyone,
I am sorry, but I am going to use this as a place to vent my frustrations and sadness today. I know that it will be good to get my thoughts out and also I know I have some wonderful friends who love me and for that I am sooooo happy.
On Friday night, a student from St. James was killed in a car accident. He was a junior who moved here last year. So, he wasn't known by everyone, but it is a small school. He had a big group of friends who are devestated. They are not the popular kids, they are not the kids who are overly involved in school, but they are sweet kids who have been good to each other because they don't have the strongest families. In a time of immense hurt, the one place they have to look towards for guidance has let them down- the school.
Although the school had counselors and pastors available to them, they did nothing else. They did not dismiss school for the funeral today. It was at 2:00. This did not make it easy for anyone to attend. I never had Jake as a student, but I have had all of these grieving teenagers who need a support system more than anything right now. I could not believe that they did not dismiss school this afternoon. This meant that unless most of our class was going to be gone for the funeral, we were not encouraged to go. I do not think that is right. I think those kids needed to know that people care about them and care that their friend died. So, I found my own substitutes and went to the funeral.
I don't care what the circumstances are, if a student dies, it is traumatic. I had 8th graders who had no idea who Jake was, but who need help dealing with this. However, we were told to keep things as normal as possible in our classrooms. Are you kidding me?
You can't tell me that if this were a student who grew up in St. James and lived here their whole life that they wouldn't deal with it differently. The way that they have approached this has made me feel like an insensitive person when these kids really need to see that teachers are having a hard time with this too. I am sooooooo frustrated and sooooooooooo sad.
Today was a hard day.