Since giving birth to our third son, A, my wife has been back to school for a grand total of 10 days. In that time, she has been physically hit by a student, she has broken up two fights (both of which , oddly enough, involved lesbians), and a student has brought a gun to school with the intent of threatening another student. In this last case, the student in question (who is in my wife's physics class), "chickened out" - so to speak - and left the gun in her car outside the building. She was, nevertheless, handed over to authorities.
This lead to a discussion in which I asked my wife whether she anticipated being able to retire (20+ years from now) without a Columbine/Virginia Tech/Northern Illinois type of situation occurring within her district. She answered "no." I then suggested the very real probability that "good" students would begin arming themselves as a means of protection. I give you the following article off of cnn.com....
Utah students hide guns, head to class.
This lead to a discussion in which I asked my wife whether she anticipated being able to retire (20+ years from now) without a Columbine/Virginia Tech/Northern Illinois type of situation occurring within her district. She answered "no." I then suggested the very real probability that "good" students would begin arming themselves as a means of protection. I give you the following article off of cnn.com....
Utah students hide guns, head to class.
posted by Just a Few Things about Scott ... | 2:24 PM
4 Comments:
The very notion that she's thinking of staying for the 20+ years towards retirement--I find beyond my realm of immediate understanding.
Is she planning this? I know the pay (and benefits) are better in the public schools--but at what cost? If quality of life second to personal safety is a legitimate threat--is the money ultimately worth it? (Stated differently, I know you guys have roots there... and I really don't have any roots to speak of... but when do you get the heck out of dodge?) My personal level of tolerance would be very minute and finite. Sarah's scrappy--I'll give her that. But dang. Lesbian cat-fights?
I saw Matt's diggs--and those were good diggs. And considering that we were picked up by an armed policeman within probably :20 or :30 minutes since arriving on campus...I gotta think that he's less fearful of said Columbine event. (Do rich white girls go postal? They might get their Jimmy Chu's bloody.)
Believe it or not, S LOVES what she does. And even though she complains about the students from time to time, I doubt she would be nearly as happy at a private schoo. She's got this very salt-of-the-earth sensibility to her. She really doesn't crave wealth. She really would prefer NOT to live in what she perceives to be a wealthy community. And, although we've never really talked about it, I very highly doubt that she would desire to teach in a private school for rich kids. It would just go against her rural upbringing.
On a somewhat separate note, I too was interested by her knowledge that the girls in question were gay. When asked how she knew this, she told me that she had heard both of them openly talking about girlfriends, both past and present. So the stigma is coming off, my friend. For better or worse, the stigma is gone.
Greg, I can't remember if you were around when the sniper was causing panic and havoc here. There were people at my job who basically lived in fear, would drive 90 minutes out of their way to go get gas or go to Home Depot - and didn't want to walk to lunch. So if you were around, do you remember people acting funny? If not, do any of you know what I'm talking about? :) Anyway, the whole experience left me believing a little more that what happens to me is in God's hands. I could see leaving a job because you're tired of crappy people, crappy circumstances, crappy pay, etc. And while living near one of the crime capitals of the world makes me more cautious when traversing through DC, that's never been a real deciding factor for whether I will stay in the area or not.
All this to say, I'm glad to hear about people who have faced some threatening situations and not basically given into fear like so many people I've run into here.
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