I know a teacher who was asked to speak to her junior high students in the aftermath of the shooting. She explained to the kids that she understood the distress surrounding the tragedy and she also told them she understood that there had been so many shootings that some kids may not have any feelings at all. She went further and told them she didn’t know what she’d be able to do for them if they were attacked, that she was not sure she’d be able to protect them because she hadn’t been trained to do that. Her remarks were honest.
The kids told their parents, two parents complained, now she’s out on non-disciplinary administrative leave forced to see a psychiatrist because the administration has determined that she is overwhelmed. I’d be overwhelmed too if I were expected to protect anyone while we were under siege because I have a desk job. I am not a marine and I don’t get combat pay.
If I were a teacher and we were attacked I’d be out the window, “Follow me kids, run AWAY!”
Overwhelmed is the new scared shitless.
Unfortunately this teacher is probably part of a new school tactic to force teachers into quitting or retiring so the district can save money. They did this in my school district by targeting tenured and senior teachers for psychiatric evaluations in the hopes that they would be embarrassed or mortified by the process and decide to quit or retire. It is a cold and cruel world out there.
I am hopeful that this will not be the case. I’m hoping that she will go to the EAP appointments to carefully discuss the pressure she was feeling, make the required acts of contrition and hang in there for another 15 years until she retires. It is a cold cruel world out there and it is full of stupid.
Sorry for your friend, the teachers in that case did heroic things, but who can say how we would act, It’s bad enough when people expect teachers to do the parents job but what more can be expected of them.
I know how I’d act; I’d be afraid and concerned with self-preservation.
Although, it’s likely a completely different scenario when consideration is given to the fact that teachers bond with their students, establishing protective, loving relationships.
You’re right, we demand too much from our teachers.
I am glad you are talking about this… because I can’t… I get too angry. Your calm, level-headedness is refreshing and valuable.
We have a monumental problem. It’s beyond gun control, although gun control is part of it. The problem is if we do nothing to correct the problem then we are accepting random slaughter as an ordinary occurrence in our daily lives.
I couldn’t agree more.
After reading this twice, my head is still spinning. What the heck did the complaining parents and the administration who suspended her expect her to say?
“I am Rambo. Fear nothing!”
The contributions of teachers are so often belittled that it’s laughable that some now expect them to not only teach overcrowded classrooms of children, but also to guarantee their safety against a gunman. Ridiculous.
She saw the psychiatrist last week and he told her there was nothing wrong with her other than she told a truth the other adults didn’t want to hear. He told her he was recommending her return to the classroom after the Christmas break. The superintendent was not satisfied by the opinion and scheduled another appointment for January. Really?! I am seething on her behalf. She is a teacher who is repeatedly nominated by her students to Who’s Who Among America’s Teachers- these are kids who have been long gone from her junior high classroom and are college students. Her kids return to visit her from the various paths they have taken, military-wars, college, marriage-family. They look to her at defining moments in their lives when they have choices to make that will impact them for the rest of their lives- sex, drugs, booze, running away; she counsels those kids to take the long view and they trust her to tell the truth.