Some days just suck

I haven'e been very good about writing on here... Today really deserves an entry. The speech pathologist came into our room crying this afternoon because she had just witnessed something incredibly horrible. There was a boy sitting outside the front office. His mom had been called because he had called a girl a bitch. His mom came into the school and immediately punched the boy in the head. The boy's head hit the wall and he looked like he was going to go unconscious. The mother repeatedly punched the boy in the head while everyone in the office just stood and watched. The Speech teacher didn't know what to do. She wanted to intervene, but she didn't want to get punched. She ended up just busting into tears and walking away. She went to the principal to express her disgust with what had happened and the principal just said "Well, its a common occurence. You need to get thicker skin." I don't understand how someone can become so jaded when they see a child being so severely abused. It's like they aren't even human anymore. I don't even know how to process this and I didn't even actually see what happened. I can't imagine being in the shoes of the speech teacher. My Americorps bosses don't help either. We tell them these things that we see and they just shake their heads and say "well you're working in an urban school district. That's how it is". NO! That's not a valid excuse! Standing by and letting it happen because "that's how it is" is not why I came here and it doesn't help anything. It just keeps this cycle of abuse and ignorance be passed from generation to generation in a neverending circle. I'm so ready to be done with Americorps and to be done with Birmingham and to go home.