Terri Farley

Monday, October 21, 2013

TEACHERS SHOW MORE BRAVERY THAN LEGISLATORS

I’ve never met Michael Landsberry, the math teacher who died protecting Sparks Middle School students today, but I know him.

He was a former Marine and National Guardsman, but he acted like a teacher.

I taught in the Washoe County School District, a few miles from the school where Michael Landsberry died, but proximity isn't the point. I felt this same rage, sadness and empathy when teachers died in Sandy Hook.

Don’t tell me Landsberry was in education for extra days off. A teacher who faces the muzzle of a gun, arms spread to protect the children at his back, is not thinking of summer vacation.

Don’t tell me we should arm teachers. Teachers protect kids ; we don’t shoot them. Witnesses say Landsberry died as he tried to coax the armed student to talk, not shoot.