I AM JUST SO DAMNED PISSED!

      Another school shooting.....

      Two teachers...dead

      Two students...dead. Many more injured.

      When will it stop? 

      When will all of the lawmakers do the right thing and take the necessary steps to help alleviate these kinds of tragedies from continuing?

     I know, I know.....

     There's all kinds of blame to go around and we've heard it all:

• It's the parent's fault for not locking up their guns.
• It's the classmates' fault for not noticing something was "off" with another classmate
• It's the school's fault for not addressing the mental health needs of the students

    And the list goes on and on and on....

Bottom line? Until our lawmakers step up to the plate and make this the national problem that it truly is, and allocate the funding to address ALL of it, nothing is going to change. NOT ONE DAMN THING!  We're just going to keep losing teachers who were only trying to protect their children, along with innocent children. While we all just stand back and wring our hands. It's time to #DOSOMETHING

Join me. This is the link to a foundation set up by THE Matthew McConaughey and his wife, Camila, in the aftermath of the Uvalde, TX school shooting.  https://www.greenlightsgrantinitiative.org/   Share it with every school administrator you know, far and wide. Let's start a movement!! For our children and our teachers!

Safety and Protection

      In light of last week's assassination attempt, I'm curious, political affiliations aside, is this going to do anything to change our gun control laws, nationally?  I'm guessing not. I'm guessing that lawmakers will treat it as an isolated incident or the colossal screw up of one law enforcement agency or another.

     This is why it concerns me: If highly trained Secret Service and law enforcement officers are unable to protect a former, running President, what makes ANYONE believe that teachers are capable of protecting a classroom of children?

     In my classroom situation, alone, I have a door that leads directly from my classroom to the parking lot, which borders a busy street. That door is all glass. On the opposite side of my classroom are three, floor-to-ceiling windows. Also all glass. If a shooter wanted to get into my classroom, it would be no problem and it would be over before anyone could respond.

     I'm not saying that this is a building problem. It is a district problem. The district is charged with making sure our buildings are safe for our students. The buck stops at the district office.They have the money.  Can you really put a price tag on the safety of the students?

     It's also a gun control problem. Why does Joe Shmoe, on the street, need an AR-style gun? He doesn't. The only people who need those types of guns are law enforcement and our military. Changes need to be made and they have been needed for quite some time. I hope that this latest assassination attempt opens the eyes of some of the  naysayers.

Do Better!

      As I was driving home from school on Thursday, along a busy street, with no shoulders, I noticed a little girl off to the side of the road. She looked to be about the same age as the preschoolers I teach. Across the road was a small park.  I could just see her trying to dart across the traffic to get to the swings! I slowed down, just in case, and kind of took in the setting. There was no adult to be seen.  The little girl was spinning around the speed limit sign (40 mph, which no one was obeying)

     In this day and age, I was afraid to pull over and take her back to her house, so I called the police. I could just see her getting hit or taken. After giving the dispatcher all of the information, he said they would send someone out "as soon as they could."  I decided to turn around and watch.  Do you know how long it took the police to respond to an unaccompanied child next to a busy street in Topeka, Kansas?  THIRTY-FIVE MINUTES!! Unacceptable!

     By the time they got there, the little girl was off running around her little neighborhood. Even though the police had her description, they merely cruised right past her and kept going. Who knows how far from her actual home she was?  Do better!