Monday after lunch I broke the news to the students that Ridge Creek School would be closing it's doors by the end of the week. There were tears and protests that it was not true. Students and staff spent time at Lakefront consoling one another, then the students were dismissed to their dorms to pack and prepare for departures, whenever that would come.
Later that day I saw some of the boys walking around and putting something on my car. I asked what they were doing and they said they were putting out toy soldiers. When I asked why, they said to protect the school. The little toy soldiers are everywhere...in the Admin Building, the dorms, Academics, the Lodge, the Gym, on retaining walls. When they ran out of toy soldiers they placed toy animals to watch over us.
It was clear the little toy soldiers were a metaphor for their feelings that day and the days that followed as the toy soldiers are still here, after everyone is gone, protecting Ridge Creek School. These young men were feeling that they and their school had been attacked and needed protection.
Over the next few days I heard students say that Ridge Creek was a family, they liked it here, it just started to get good for them and that they did not want to leave. One student told me he knew he was Oppositional Defiant Disorderd because he did not want to come when he was sent here, and now that he was being forced to leave, he did not want to go. Another student asked her father to let her spend the night one more time before leaving school.
Parents were, for the most part, incredibly understanding with the news and the scramble for getting their children home or to the next program. I hear over and over how grateful they were that their child had the time here that they had, some claiming we had saved their child's life.
The campus is now empty except for the staff that live here. No more do I hear the shouts and laughter of the students as they return to their dorms in the evening. The peace of the mountains surrounds the campus, unfortunately it will no longer bring peace and healing to the hearts and minds of troubled teenages.
