I can only guess at the stress and distress that teachers, administrators and staff feel regarding the continued deadly targeting of those innocents in our classrooms. Apparently, it is safer to be in a Ukrainian classroom than in an American elementary school these days. That, unfortunately, is not hyperbole.

We must keep asking ourselves: What would it take to stop these murders? Isn’t there some solution to this horrendous, unspeakable loss of life? What are people willing to do to end it? Is no one courageous enough to take a stand and save the children … save the teachers?

There is one solution. The question is: What are the lives of those not yet murdered worth, and who is willing to pay that price?

Picture this and listen with an open mind: September, and elementary schools across America are closed and teachers are on strike until adequate federal gun control laws are passed.

Dead children cannot learn. Fearful children have problems learning. Fearful teachers can’t teach. Teachers have been asked to be social workers and still teach. To be nurses and still teach. To be counselors and still teach. To be police officers and still teach.

Time for a line in the sand, not a guard at the door.

Will the National Education Association run our classrooms, or will the National Rifle Association? That is the elemental question.

Sandra Gioro
Portland

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