Even unto this day, the phrase "Our Lady of the Angels" still makes me weep. Despite the fact that I was reared half a continent away, and that the buildings in which the various Catholic schools I attended were either brick or concrete block, I am still inspired with a sense of horror at the monstrous event which destroyed so many young lives that fateful winter day in December of 1958. I can certainly appreciate the irrationality and stupidity of the nuns who, instead of herding the children outside to safety, forced them to sit at their desks and "say the rosary". (You don't have to be a rocket scientist to be a nun.) In every respect, they were just as culpable for the many deaths and injuries as the boy who apparently set the blaze - for whatever evil and/or deranged purpose that inspired him to do so. In my own Maryland suburb, the parochial school was crowded beyond the limits of sanity; my half of the 3rd grade room (which was built to accommodate roughly 30 pupils) had an incredible 93 children packed in like sardines (the tallest children, of which I was one, were shoved in the back of the room, and the boys were forced to sit in the cloakroom, sometimes practically enveloped in winter coats.) If another child came into the parish, another desk was pushed into the room, and we were constricted even further. If a child fainted in class (likely due to attenuated oxygen levels), Sister revived the hapless tot with a good, hard smack in the face. And that was only one-half of the class - the other 93 kids were crowded into a room equally inadequate!With the post-war baby boom population of the Catholic schools in the D.C. metropolitan area stretching the facilities beyond all reasonable limits - can you just imagine the horror that would have transpired had my school (which fortunately was concrete block) gone up in flames? Fortunately (for the mental health of succeeding generations) the Catholic school system is closing up shop in many parts of the country, and today's children are not being subjected to the inadequacies of that regimen. But for those of us old enough to remember: Our Lady of the Angels - the phrase, and the harrowing images in print and on the television - is a tragic memory that will haunt us until the end of our days. God rest the souls of those tragic young victims who did not live to fulfill the promise of their lives.
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