A Monday memory....

The utter horror of the events of December 14th in Newtown, Connecticut is beyond words, beyond comprehension.  As a mother, grandmother, and former teacher, emotions rise quickly to the surface and are hard to push away.  It is, quite simply, heartbreaking.

So I pray. For the victims, their families, friends and loved ones. For the First Responders. For the surviving teachers and students. For all of us.

There were many questions in my Third Grade classroom after the devastation at Columbine High School in 1999.  Like most teachers, I tried to answer the students questions without giving specific details, bearing in mind their ages and what was appropriate to say.  Several children were posing, "what if" questions to me and I tried to be general in my response and say that it wouldn't happen at our school. But one boy in particular, Stephen, kept interrupting as the discussion went on.  Finally, he stood up and asked, "But what if they do get in the building.  What if they come in through the door? What will we do?"

I paused, asking for Divine inspiration, and replied with as much certainty as I could muster.  "If anyone ever came through that door, I would push you all up here (front of the classroom), knock this table down and put you behind it.  Then I would stand in front of you and do everything I could to protect you."

A smile crept across Stephen's face as he sat down, then said, "OK".  And that was the end of the questions.  Many of the students started to nod in Stephen's direction.  Because that was really what they all wanted to know. They wanted to tell them that I would do everything I could to take care of them, to keep them safe.  And I was so grateful they appeared to believe me, hopeful that it reassured them, at least for that day, that we would be alright.

The heroism of the Principal, staff, and teachers in Newtown did not surprise me.  For the vast majority of those who enter the field of education, teaching is more of a calling than an occupation.  Caring for students as you would your own family is second nature.  

Having to literally try and save the lives of our students was not something we even thought about, much less trained for, when I attended all those teacher training courses in college.  

Things must change.....we, as a country, can not let this happen again.