The Tennessee Council of Juvenile and Family Court Judges Executive Committee has issued the following statement:
It is with overwhelming sadness that we write this statement in response to the tragic events in Nashville on Monday.
Children who went to school on Monday, and staff who went to school to teach those children on Monday, and a caretaker of the facility who went to work on Monday, did not come home. It is unimaginable.
The pain and emptiness we feel is total. We have no words for the parents and families of those slain to assuage a grief so great.
We, as judges and magistrates of our state’s juvenile courts, spend a large part of our time and energy protecting children, fashioning a judicial response that best addresses a child’s best interests. We believe that each child is of equal sacred worth. We believe that each child is deserving of a safe and secure environment in which to grow and learn. This is what we do. The powerlessness we feel in not being able to fulfill our role and in confronting such a tragic event is vast. It is almost unbearable.
Human hands cannot mend this injury; human hands cannot repair the tear in our soul. Human hands can, however, be folded in prayer to beseech Almighty Providence to bring comfort to the families torn asunder by the events of Monday. Our hands have been so folded.
Our condolences and prayers are offered to those families who have lost so much.