Eskrima Kombat

Slain Teachers: Landsberry, Ritzer

In a sadly predictable article, a school teacher has been murdered by her student. Well-liked and widely admired math teacher Colleen Ritzer was followed into the restroom by a low-life student, who hit her in the face and slit her throat with a box cutter. He then stuffed her body into a rolling dumpster and wheeled her out of the school, then dumped her body in the woods.

It goes without saying that this beautiful woman was unarmed when she was butchered. Apparently people are okay with that.

Little more than a week ago teacher Matt Landsberry sacrificed himself by confronting another young punk with a gun, giving students time to escape. He was also unarmed, and I guess everybody is just fine with that.

Earlier I commended teacher Victoria Soto for stepping up and laying down her life to protect her students.

In February of this year a bus driver defied a gunman who tried to kidnap two children, and was shot to death. I’m proud to say that Charles Poland was from Idaho, but he, too, died defenseless.

bsc

Time and again teachers and other school employees step up and make the ultimate sacrifice, giving their lives to protect their students.

Look at the caliber of these heroes who have died for their students, and yet they supposedly can’t be trusted with guns. And because they are unarmed, there’s little they can do other than die. People feel “uncomfortable” with teachers having weapons, especially guns. How uncomfortable do they feel when a young teacher gets her throat slashed?

I’m not saying that there are easy solutions like just passing out guns to school employees, but it doesn’t seem right to expect teachers to die while claiming that they can’t be trusted with weapons.

When I taught in Fresno I carried a knife every day because I decided I wasn’t going to go quietly. If I got shot, I was going to cut and slash as I fell. How many teachers are put into similar circumstances, but decide not to break the law to defend themselves if necessary?