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.   

Don’t tell me this is about mental illness, not guns.  I don’t know what drove that child to bring a gun to school.

I do know an armed teacher or any other “good guy with a gun” would hesitate before shooting down a middle schooler.

Teachers listen, connect and yes, protect students.   

How many more children have to die before legislators do the same?