In spite of the criticism police are getting for Uvalde at this moment, this is a headline you will never see. And the criticism will fade. And people will use it as an excuse to give police more funding, even while they skimp on teachers salaries and look the other way when so many teachers resign. I work with a Mid-Western school system (tangentially). So many teachers, so many principals are resigning and they have no idea what is going to happen next year. This school district is not alone, this is playing out across the country. The best teachers have been resigning for years because of lack of resources, lack of respect, low pay. It is painful, but especially painful for our country. Imagine if one of the police had rushed in an saved some children and then died doing so. We would be hearing non-stop about that officer, there would be screams of how anybody could even mouth the words “Defund the Police.” And yet not only did this teacher die but her husband died soon after of grief leaving four orphans and there are a few blurbs on the news, but no examination on this woman’s life and dedication and what she put up with. We are a society upside down.
It is only now that I realize what extraordinary damage network television has done with all the “cop shows” portraying a mythology that doesn’t exist. There are good and bad in every profession but I wonder now if there is more good in teaching, where they don’t get to walk around in uniforms with tools of death at their side and everybody has to take a step back when they walk by. They just go in everyday and take care of our children for little reward. No drama that fits in an hour long episode. They face a constant barrage of attacks from the people they serve, with nobody standing up to protect them and scream to the world how important they are. Where are you Pelosi, Shumer? You should be running to the microphones extolling this woman and the teachers in her mold.
A teacher threw herself in front of her students to protect them. Think about that. The joy she must have felt in teaching. How much she must have loved the children society placed in her care. There will be no television shows with big stars and serious, soulful glares to portray her. It will fade in a few days. No, the next show will be “Law and Order: School police in Texas.” More is the pity for us.