Gloria Farajian: Parents react to Parkway Elementary teacher's death

Gloria Farajian started working in St. Lucie County in 2004. She was a second grade teacher at White City Elementary until last year.

This was her first year teaching at Parkway Elementary, where she was the art teacher.

Parents at pickup Wednesday afternoon were finding out  for the first time she had been killed.

Alan Farajian, 23, is accused of stabbing and killing his mother Gloria in the 1800 block of Len Drive of unincorporated Palm Beach County

There were many expressions of disbelief, as parents were trying to figure out how to explain it to their youngsters.

"I'm just going to have to sit him down and tell him he's not going to see her again.  It's very hard to explain to a young kid, said Kristina Saarinen.

Dominic Recco looks at this tragedy from a unique perspective.  He says his wife's nephew was at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown Connecticut on the day of last month's mass shooting.

"He wasn't in the classroom but the guy was close by and he heard him yelling and screaming. It was a terrible ordeal," said Recco.

Recco, and other parents I talked with, say because the crime didn't happen here, the tragedy won't shake their confidence in the school.

None of the faculty at Parkway Elementary or anyone from the teachers union would talk about what happened. 

The school district released a statement saying, "Such tragedies impact the entire St. Lucie Public Schools family and we share the grief of family and friends."

Grief counselors will be on hand at Parkway Elementary, and at White City Elementary.