The South Bronx blogger is a teacher in one of New York City’s poorest neighborhoods.

He is outraged that StudentsFirst issued a self-aggrandizing statement about the Connecticut massacre that ignored the heroism of the staff (whose tenure and benefits StudentsFirst tried to diminish in the last session of the legislature) and referred to 20 precious and beloved children as “assets.” SF assures the people of Connecticut that it stands ready to reform schools like Sandy Hook.

Need I say that this intrusion of self-interest is contemptible?

Thanks to SF, Connecticut will count student test scores as part of a teacher’s evaluation. The papers say that the killer had high test scores.

The evaluation will not take into account the remarkable courage and integrity, the strength and devotion, the depth of commitment, that caused so many of the teachers at the Sandy Hook school to lay down their lives for their children–not their “assets”–their children.

From a teacher in Wisconsin:

I can’t stop crying. In 1994 my associate principal was shot at my school here in Wisconsin. I have had counseling through the years but when something like this happens I am right back to 1994. I remain in teaching because I love working with my students but how can we live in a society where this continues to be possible? Is there something fundamentally corrupted within our collective soul that we fail to respond to safeguard all of our future? I attended my children’s elementary school holiday concert yesterday with tears. I woke up repeatedly last night and am now up at 5 AM trying to make some sense of life. I am still in tears.

From a retired principal:

I am a retired principal of an elementary school. I don’t have any answers either but, as most educators know, cuts in social workers, limited powers of educators who know there are kids who need mental health services but are constrained by “rules” that dictate which kids get help and which kids do not, and parents who cannot face the fact that their child has problems that need to be addressed. In my last year as a principal, the superintendent asked us to make a choice between cutting speech and language specialists or social workers. I expressed that this was not a choice I could make but was the only principal in the district who spoke to this issue. We educators need to speak up and tell legislators what is happening at schools.

From a teacher:

Confused,

As a teacher in Connecticut, near Sandy Hook, I saw the look on my fellow colleagues faces that we no longer could say that something like this could never happen here. I teach in an amazing suburban school district, like Newtown, and it was clear that our high school was in no way safer because of its location if something like this could happen a few towns away.

Yet I knew that many teachers in Connecticut were having similar thoughts. My husband teaches in the city of Bridgeport and he heard the news while he was watching his 5th graders during recess. He messages me that he could barely keep it together as he saw them playing innocently on the playground when just a few weeks ago the school was locked down for the third or fourth time this year due to gun violence in the neighborhood.

I received a call from my mom who teaches kindergarten also in Bpt. and was home ill yesterday. We both began crying as we shared that we knew it was a kindergarten that was targeted. I knew it could have been her school,which is my sons school. My son, who I know we both were thinking of at that exact moment, whose kindergarten classroom is directly across from hers.

This could have been my aunts school or any of the other 3 schools that I have had the honor of teaching in. This was the school of my fellow friends and high school classmates. Yesterday I learned of who was safe and today I have been told of how my circle of friends and colleagues has been impacted. We are not safe in our classrooms just because this and other tragedies have happened in different states, different towns, or other coasts. This is the elephant in the room that so many have ignored and said that today is not the day to address.

We as teachers have homework to do. We need to be the ones that have the conversation regarding the reality of gun violence in our country with our government elected officials. We need to be the group that regardless of our political affiliations stand together and say that enough is enough. We need to be the group that marches and says we will not leave until our children can go to school and be safe.

In the next 15 days I will give birth to our third child and I pray that this child will never have to hear what we heard on the news yesterday. I pray that my son will continue to be shielded from the events until I can explain it to him when he is older. I pray most of all that children will be allowed to keep their innocence and not have someone steal it away. Ironically, yesterday in English we finished reading The Catcher in The Rye. I find myself wishing I could follow Holden’s dream and keep the children of Sandy Hook from loosing their innocence.

From Jere Hochman, superintendent of schools in Bedford, New York:

Daily, your followers find wisdom, insight, and courage in your posts – an ally in taking on one educational cause or another. Today, we find comfort – and an ally in taking on causes of life and death proportion. And – to Lisa (above) – thank you for sharing. The loss of a son to gun violence is just tragic. May his memory be a blessing.

If only America had a memory – and Presidents and Governors and Legislators had some courage.

30 years ago (next month) my principal, my fellow assistant principal, and I with others literally wrote the book as we worked through a school shooting. Three students died and not a day goes by… And, so it began – “counselors will be available” – how to talk to children about death – gun accessibility – calls for metal detectors (which do not stop terrorists and those on an evil mission). 30 years later, nothing has changed.

And, after mourning these deaths, hearing the stories of teacher heroism, and responding to the questions about our schools locally – it will be business as usual.

* Not one gun will be removed from the streets or deemed illegal and the NRA will spin their usual “guns don’t kill people, people kill people.”

* Federal, state, and local funding for mental health services and social services will continue to be cut drastically from budgets.

* Local CPS (child protection services) and “hot lines” will continue to be understaffed and overloaded with cases that never get addressed.

The only glimmer of hope is that Mr. Obama does not have to worry about re-election and maybe, just maybe, there are a few other legislators out there who care more about lives and principles than getting re-elected.