There was a school shooting in a California high school. One student was shot by another student, who was wielding a shotgun.
A teacher and a guidance counselor persuaded the student with the shotgun to put down his firearm.
We don’t yet know their names.
They put themselves in harm’s way and saved the lives of their students.
Diane Ravitch's blog 
Hm-m-m… it doesn’t sound like a case of a “good guy with a gun” does it….
Just imagine if one other person had a gun. Do you think it would have ended the way it did or would more people be dead?
Just a reminder that the people who “put students first” are in our schools.
Oh, Linda, please don’t get the charterites started!
Yes, we continue to teach while the Rheeject starts her book tour. Her mug must be on the cover probably surrounded by children of color.
If I only knew that eating bees and taping students’ mouths closed led to fame and fortune….Another missed opportunity!
I caught vomit once. I bought clothing and bookbags. I donated a computer system to a girl whose dad died of cancer. I made a call home for a boy who was afraid to tell his dad he fell off the roof of a car doing donuts and scraped his face, arms and face. He lied and told them it was a skateboarding accident. I called a student every morning at 6:30 to get her up for school for two weeks until her attendance improved. I could go on, but that would be a long title for my book, which will never be published. Mostly because I don’t have time to write one and I am a lowly classroom teacher and not a Rheeformer.
Linda, if Rhee could write her memoirs while she was on the road every day campaigning for Kasich, Scott Walker, Rick Scott, and others, you can too.
Okay…maybe this summer….Teacher Confidential.
Those two staff members are true heroes. They risked their lives.
The teacher stood right there and talked the person into putting down the gun. What more can you say?
Can you believe Diane Ravitch posted this. I am outraged!
Ha!
I got that…do you think they were unionized? Then it will be even more disgusting.
TFA is having a meeting now about how to fake their indignation over another reprehensible act by the status quo lazy good-for- nothing slackers.
John, I forgot that I am not supposed to post anything about “heroic teachers.” Last time I did that, it set off an earthquake on Twitter and the rightwing blogosphere.
Possibly the increase in the publicity of heroic acts by the REAL teachers of the USA may be the downfall of the privatizers…not all will need to be tragedies.
Check out the latest from our friend, Jersey Jazzman, Great Stuff in Public Schools:
http://jerseyjazzman.blogspot.com/2013/01/the-great-stuff-in-public-schools-that.html?m=1
What did you call that “earthquake” in an earlier post? A “kerfuffle”?
Please Dr. Ravitch, keep the “kerfuffles” coming! “Kerfuffle” away!
I believe you forgot to use the word reprehensible!
My last post was snark.
I await the new Gates Foundation report that factors heroism into VAMadness.
What might we expect? Perhaps once-a-year standardized test=35% of a teacher’s effectiveness, risking one’s life for other people’s children=2%. *Extra weight given to the nebulous latter because Bill & Melinda are feeling very generous.*
After all, when test prep can take up to one third of a school year, and facing down a disturbed gun-toting person is over and done with in a matter of minutes or at most hours, one must be “practical” about teacher evaluations and measure in a painfully precise and objective manner how much effort it took and how long it took.
As Broadie-type managers would assert: you most certainly want to avoid factoring totally subjective and unscientific judgments of heroism into iron-clad mathematical formulas, now would you?
🙂
I’m waiting or the “target practice” portion of my evaluation to be put into practice. Should be any time now that we’ll have a firing range at every teacher preparatory college.
Educators don’t get paid enough to deal with crime like this one. Educators aren’t recognize until things happen like this. If it was more than one shooters in the School building it would have ended deadly like the CT and Columbine massacre! Thanking God and praying for the California High School!
To Linda: No maybe–this summer, you WILL write your book, because for 2013 your resolution is to write a little everyday WHILE you’re still teaching, so it’s fresh and can be referenced. My daughter (a writer) and my husband still chastise me for not following my own advice to you, and are angry that I haven’t written a book!
Don’t let this happen to you!!!
Heroic, yes. Surprising, no. Pretty much what I expect teachers to do.
The teachers at Columbine, Taft Union, Sandy Hook and many other of these tragedies have not received their due. Instead of heralding their sacrifice, the profession is blamed for every ill of society. As a profession, we must change this conversation.
We must have a greater say and louder voice in the conversation about gun control in this country.
We must also study what these brave professionals did at Taft Union to prevent further bloodshed. There are lessons we can learn from them.