I was presented with some nerve-wracking news from my son late last week: apparently, a friend had said his father had been killed–and not by natural causes. When my son asked the friend if he was serious, he said “Yeah.”

I could help but wonder if what my son’s friend had said was true, or if the kid had made it up or exaggerated out of anger, or possibly to get attention.

Since I had never been in this kind of situation before, so I wasn’t sure what to do. There seemed to be a couple of reasonable choices: A. do nothing, since I wasn’t directly involved and there was a chance it was not true, or b) discuss the situation with the school.

Although I normally try to stay out of private matters, it seemed to me that there was potentially more at stake here. If true, the kid and his family might need some help or support. If false–the kid still might need some help of some sort, since it isn’t exactly normal to go around saying this kind of thing. True or not, this sort of rumor  would be likely to “get around” among these young kids, confusing and frightening them.

So on Friday, I decided to speak with the school principal. She expressed surprised, saying she had heard nothing about this, and thanked me for letting her know. The principal also said she would call the student’s mother and find out what was going on. She agreed that something should be done, whether the rumor was true or not. And–to my surprise–she said she would let me know what she discovered.

It is disturbing to hear stories of untimely death–more so when it’s close to home. When I hear about things like this, I am reminded of the importance of staying safe, and not taking unnecessary risks, when it comes to general daily conduct.

The United States Department of State has put out a comprehensive document with tons of recommendations for keeping your family safe. It was developed for Americans overseas, but the information contained in the document is useful for anyone, regardless of where they live.

Update: It turns out that the child’s parent had not actually been killed, after all–although he had died some time earlier of natural causes. So it seems this was a case of a child feeling sad and wanting some attention–which is understandable–but going about it in a way that’s unhealthy and harmful to the other students.