A question from the audience ..
Sen.
Joni
Ernst
(R-Iowa) held
a Town Hall meeting last week and, not surprisingly, the subject of
guns was front and center. The audience was divided and quite
contentious as Ernst started in on the line that what was needed for
gun control was
more attention focused on mental illness. She
acknowledged that the country had been through some “difficult
moments” related to shootings and at that point the shouts of “do
something” came from the crowd.
I
was
about to turn it all off but they announced they would open the floor
to questions from the audience so I decided to listen. A lovely
middle aged teacher from Johnston named Ellie Holland came to the
mike and, in a soft and emotional voice, she said: “As
part of my teacher training this past week, I was asked to listen to
popping sounds and then determine if they were gun shots or not. I
was then asked to be trained to man a family reunification center to
provide counseling to parents seeking their children following a
catastrophic event.” And
then, as her voice choked she said, “So my question to you today
Senator is...when can I plan to get back to trainings that simply
teach children to read and write?”
Practically
the whole audience broke into a cheer for what she'd said but it left
Joni Ernst without an answer.
posted by Goldendaze-Ginnie at 2:30 PM
7 Comments:
I cannot imagine what teachers are asked to do these days in the US. How can children learn when they are concerned for their safety? How can teachers teach?
The script is hard to read Ginnie as the lines overlap. However I made it through--I think. I so agree with that teacher. Combat training shouldn't be part of the course to become a teacher..
Kudos to her! The problem cannot be solved with better mental health. I wish it were so, but it isn't.
From my friend Jan:
"As much as I miss teaching, I don't know if I could stand the pressure of today's chaos these kids have to deal with - or their teachers. Our schools were all 1-12 back then. Everybody knew everybody. And if somebody was a bit off about something, it was taken care of before he got to school. Also there was no garbage on Social Media. Social media was your telephone at home or a face to face discussion. You did not have strangers from across the country pushing already disturbed kids to act out - or Russian bots pretending to be your neighbor on Facebook and pushing you to hate. It is scary- and getting scarier."
We had a mentally ill janitor in our school at the time a few years ago our governor suggested arming the janitors back up by teacher like me with pheasant hunting experience...:(
Sadly, the situation that teacher described has become part of the way things are in schools today. And many also have security guards and metal detention pass throughs at school door entryways. It wasn't this way when i was growing up, but then that was eons ago.
Oddly enough, other countries have people with mental problems as well, yet we don't have to endure daily mass shootings. I can't think why that might be.
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