“We are going to create a system that pays teachers for doing a good job instead of for the length of time they have been breathing….”
That statement was contained in the rambling speech Gov. Piyush Jindal gave to the Louisiana Association of Business and Industry exactly 11 months ago today as he unveiled his education reform plan.
Well, Piyush, you no longer have to worry about Victoria Soto monopolizing your precious oxygen supply. You see, Ms. Soto, 27, gave up her life to protect her students, her children, in Newtown, Connecticut last Friday.
And Sandy Hook Elementary School principal Dawn Hochsprung, upon hearing gunshots, charged from a conference room and confronted shooter Adam Lanza. She lunged at him in an effort to protect her students—and paid with her life.
School psychologist Mary Sherlach also attempted to stop Lanza. She, too, was killed.
Mary Ann Jacob, a library clerk at Sandy Hook, was prepared to sacrifice her life as well. She herded her students into a restroom and locked the door and then told her students she loved them—just in case it was the last thing they ever heard. Fortunately, they survived.
“After three years, they are given lifetime protection,” Jindal said in his typically long-winded vilification of teachers to LABI almost a year ago. “Short of selling drugs in the workplace or beating up one of the business’s clients, they can never be fired.”
Piyush, you are a moron, a buffoon, an idiot and as a lifelong citizen of Louisiana, it profoundly embarrasses me to have you as my governor.
There. I’ve said it.
I deliberately postponed writing this for a few days so as to temper my emotions and to write more rationally and calmly. In retrospect, I’m glad; my words are more carefully chosen today.
You see, I’m a little too close to this story to be completely objective (though I have never really laid claim to objectivity). I have three grandchildren who are each six years old, the same age as 16 of those 20 precious children slaughtered last Friday by that monster. Two are twins and the other, their first cousin, is nine days younger. They all attend the same school and I have had nightmares since Friday.
I have close friends who attend my church who are elementary school teachers and they are all heroes. They love their students and their every action at their schools is carried out with sole intent of feeding their students’ fertile minds so as to help them learn and prepare themselves for productive lives. I don’t know a single one of those wonderful teachers who put tenure or themselves ahead of their kids.
My high school teachers likewise were heroes. Two, Charlotte Lewis and Maggie Hinton, somehow saw potential in my writing abilities early on and encouraged me to keep writing. Another was Earvin Ryland. I took three courses under him: U.S. history, civics and geography and he consistently pushed me to do better—and he did it without belittling me or calling attention to my many scholastic shortcomings. Morgan Peoples, Mary Alice Garrett, Coach Perkins, Ruth Johnson, Coach Garner, Coach Garrett—heroes one and all. If some nutcase like Lanza had invaded Ruston High School back then, Coach Moose Phillips would have taken him apart with his bare hands.
And those heroes produced more heroes. Katherine McBride Cox would go on to a sterling career as an educator/principal in her own right; Nancy Garrison would become a university president; Patricia Wells would become a performer with the New York Metropolitan Opera; Bill Higgs would become a world-renowned heart surgeon; Nancy Byrd became a leading pediatrician in Houston; Joel Tellinghuisen would help pioneer the development of laser surgery; Allen Carpenter would excel as a pilot, first in Vietnam and later as a trainer of other pilots. There were others: Jerry Hood, Robert Bretz, Sid Aaron, and Martha Kavanaugh, to name only a few. And those, except for two, are just the ones in my class—the class of 1961. Pat Wells and Nancy Byrd were a couple of years ahead of us.
And to hear this asinine governor disparage such an honorable profession and such noble human beings by telling those fawning LABI supporters that teachers are paid “according to how long they have been on the job, regardless of their performance”—all for the sake of political points—makes my blood boil.
But Jindal isn’t the only one. Jonathan Pelto http://jonathanpelto.com/ writes a political blog similar to LouisianaVoice in Connecticut. Much of his writing has been about one Paul Vallas, former superintendent of the Louisiana Recovery School District (RSD), and now a plague on Connecticut. But Pelto is also familiar with our own Piyush.
Pelto posted a blog today in which he cited politicians from several states, including Piyush, who have a nasty habit of running around attacking teachers for political gain.
A Rhode Island state legislator called teachers “pigs at the public trough.” Had he said such a thing in my presence, I would have done my best, even at age 69, to deck him. How dare he—a “pig at the public trough” in his own right—say such a thing!
New Jersey Gov. Chris Christie has verbally attacked teachers in that state and even in Connecticut, Gov. Dannel Malloy once said that all a teacher need do is “show up for four years” to be given tenure.
I wonder how Gov. Malloy feels today. I wonder if he would be willing to face the families of Victoria Soto, Dawn Hochsprung, Mary Sherlach or perhaps Mary Ann Jacob herself and make such an idiotic statement.
As much as I personally disagree with Louisiana Superintendent of Education John White on the so-called “reforms” he is attempting to implement, he at least had the decency to issue a statement about those horrific shootings last Friday:
“Today’s events in Connecticut are unspeakably tragic. There are no words to capture the grief all who know and love the victims must feel. They are also sobering reminders of the fragile nature of life, especially the lives of children. I urge that superintendents, principals, and school boards continue to be vigilant in maintaining crisis management plans and the preparations necessary to implement them.”
Likewise, U.S. Sen. Mary Landrieu offered her response:
“We are all heartbroken by the senseless shooting today in Newtown, Connecticut. The magnitude of this tragedy is incomprehensible, with so many innocent lives lost. To the families and community of Sandy Hook Elementary – we share in your grief, and hold you up in our prayers.”
Louisiana Association of Educators (LAE) President Joyce Haynes said this:
“As members of the education community, we are deeply concerned for everyone in the Newtown, Connecticut community. We join our entire nation in mourning the deaths of innocent children and educators due to violence.”
Additionally, LAE provided a web link to a guide on how to respond before, during and after such a crisis http://www.neahin.org/blog/school-crisis-resources.html.
As for Piyush and U.S. Sen. David Vitter?
Nothing. Nada. Zilch. Not a peep.
If either has uttered a single word of sympathy for the lives lost in that tragedy, I’ve not seen it. Nor could Google provide a clue to any statement by those two.
It can only be assumed that Vitter is keeping his mouth shut to placate his NRA supporters while Jindal, in his ongoing candidacy for the 2016 presidential nomination, is probably being interviewed by Fox News on how the National Republican Party ought not to be stupid.
Well, Piyush, to fully understand the sacrifices made by teachers—every day—all you need do is ask someone whose life has been changed for the better by a caring, giving teacher who puts the welfare of her students first—some of whom died last Friday doing just that—and others who took it upon themselves to encourage a below-average student 50-plus years ago.
Piyush, I shudder to think what action you would have taken in a situation like that of last Friday. I can almost visualize you quivering and whimpering under a desk, perhaps even wetting your pants, fearful that you won’t realize your dream of being president.
To fully understand stupidity, daft rhetoric and what it’s like to appear a fool, Piyush, you need only to stand in front of a mirror.
