Going to School in Sderot

The town of Sderot, Israel (near the border with Gaza) has been under the threat of Kassam rocket attacks from across the Gaza border for months. The beginning of the school year was no exception, as rockets rained down on the town. One of the rockets hit a day care center courtyard, forcing all inside to be evacuated. Story from the Jerusalem Post.

The Sderot Parents Association decided they would not take their children to schools and day care centers beginning Tuesday, until the government changed its policy regarding ongoing Kassam rocket attacks on the western Negev town, The Jerusalem Post learned Monday.

It followed a salvo of seven Kassam rockets that landed in and around the beleaguered town Monday morning. After one of the rockets thudded into the courtyard of a day care center, soldiers scrambled to evacuate everyone inside. Twelve people, including some of the babies, suffered shock and a building was damaged.

Despite the fact that none of the 15 babies at the center were wounded, frantic parents across the city - already furious over the government's failure to protect them and their children from the near-daily rocket fire - pulled their children out of schools on the second day of the academic year.

In total, seven Kassam rockets landed in and around the western Negev town as Sderot children started their second day of the new school year. The Islamic Jihad said they had fired nine Kuds-3 rockets, saying on their internet site that the attack was "a present for the start of the new school year."

Welcome to daily life in Sderot. On the first day of school in America, most kids are worried about making friends and fitting in. For the students in Sderot, such concerns pale in comparison to the ever present danger of a potential rocket attack. As an American, the situation in Sderot looks so alien that it's almost impossible to understand how someone could live in such a situation.

So, the next time someone claims that Israel alone is the problem, maybe they should take a second and think of Sderot.