I am so deeply disappointed in how this critical election has turned out… We really do not know our Democratic Future…🙏🫶🏼🇺🇲
All I can do is pray, and hold onto hope…. We can, and ‘will’ unite for our precious children’s future… May our institutions hold.. May Love and Goodness hold strong… #USAElection2024 🙏🫶🏼🇺🇲🍎📚
I will hold onto Hope…Our Precious Children…
WHEN THE POWER OF LOVE OVERCOMES THE LOVE OF POWER… THE World WILL KNOW PEACE Jimi Hendrix…
Until you walk in a public school teacher’s shoes…
Timothy James Walz is an American politician, former schoolteacher, and retired U.S. Army non-commissioned officer who has served as the 41st governor of Minnesota since 2019. He is the Democratic Party’s nominee for vice president in the 2024 United States presidential election…
What representation will our precious children have….A teacher’s voice will be heard…
I am truly holding onto Hope for our precious children’s right to a strong public school education..
We were blessed having our First Lady, Dr. Jill Biden … being that of a college professor… advocating for our precious children….
But, now a vice president being a former highschool public school teacher/ coach…
We must regard our teachers and all school personnel with dignity and respect they so deserve…
#FloridaTeacher❤️🍎 Our precious children are ready!! May G-d Bless …🙏🏽💙
I can so remember the day… I heard the news …I was then teaching and nothing was ever going to be the same…We have had more emergency drills… Locking doors, lights out …
And a resistance in gun reform…
Let’s arm Teachers…
Sandy Hook shooting survivors have graduated high school without 20 of their classmates
Members of Newtown High School’s class of 2024 will leave with the same mix of bittersweet feelings and excitement as many of their peers do when graduating high school in the US.
However, 60 of the 300-plus cohort of kids in Newtown, Connecticut, who graduated on Wednesday will also carry the burden from surviving one of the deadliest school shootings in US history.
They walked across the stage, knowing 20 of their classmates would not be able to join them.
On 14 December 2012, Adam Lanza shot his mum, took her guns and drove to the nearby school with them.
There he murdered 20 children, all in the first grade – aged six or seven, and six adults, including four teachers and the principal.
As police arrived at the school, Lanza then killed himself.
Prominent conspiracy theorist Alex Jones was ordered to pay almost a billion dollars to victims of the shooting and their families after he claimed the Sandy Hook shooting was a hoax that had been staged by gun control activists using actors.
More than a decade on from the massacre, the survivors of the attack celebrated their graduation, with victims honoured during the ceremony with a moment of silence.
The school’s principal Kimberly Longobucco read out the names of the young kids who were killed as the class of 2024 looked on, wearing green-and-white ribbons in remembrance of the victims.
She said: “We remember your 20 classmates who were tragically lost on December 14, 2012, who will not walk across the stage tonight.
“We remember them for their bravery, their kindness and their spirit.
“Let us strive to honour them today and every day.”
Five of the survivors discussed their feelings about graduating before they walked across the stage.
They had all been active in Junior Newtown Action Alliance and its anti-gun violence efforts – with the national conversation around gun control reignited following the attack.
Emma Ehrens was one of 11 children from Classroom 10 to survive the attack.
She and other students were able to flee when the gunman paused to reload and another student, Jesse Lewis, yelled for everyone to run.
Jesse was one of five kids killed in the room, along with two teachers.
Ms Ehrens said: “I am definitely going be feeling a lot of mixed emotions. I’m super excited to be, like, done with high school and moving on to the next chapter of my life.
“But I’m also so… mournful, I guess, to have to be walking across that stage alone … I like to think that they’ll be there with us and walking across that stage with us.”
But she added she was looking forward to the opportunities that came with moving on, and no longer being “the Sandy Hook kid”.
Grace Fisher was in a classroom down the hall from the killings and said that despite efforts to have a normal childhood following the massacre, “it wasn’t totally normal”.
She added they were missing “such a big chunk of our class” for their graduation.
Many of the survivors of the shooting have said they continue to live with the trauma of the day…
Matt Holden, 17, said: “In Sandy Hook, what happened is always kind of looming over us.”
A number of the survivors said that their experience with the attack has informed their plans going forward, and into college.
Ella Seaver said she is going to study psychology and become a therapist as a way of giving back.
Ms Seaver said: “It’s a way to feel like you’re doing something. Because we are. We’re fighting for change and we’re really not going to stop until we get it.”
Others, like Ms Ehrens and Mr Holden, want to work in politics to effect policy and laws….
Here we are once again …I am now, nine years retired, and we our still dealing with such political divisiveness…
Children are always the pawns struggling within this division ...
Summer 2023…A Time For Reflection
Back when I was getting ready for retirement… summer of 2014, Florida was heading in crisis… Reflecting back then….
My first thought, this year especially, is acknowledging how exhausted I am; All the extra demands of testing and keeping up the pace of a more challenging curriculum…While striving to keep the children motivated and engaged…
I do also worry how my children spend their summer’s free time…
Throughout the school year, I spent my teaching time encouraging them the “love of reading”; encouraging parents to take their child to the public library…And now with this extra time, I so do hope my parents “if” they have the time in their challenging lives… to take their child to the public library… to become the owner of their personal library card, that will open up their “World” to all the joys of the Public Library; Summer Programs..Movies…Reading Books…And free Computer time!
There’s definitely a loss of our precious children’s innocence…
…
Summer of 2024
How these last nine years have definitely manifested into that crisis…Due to the authoritarian government lead by our governor, Ron DeSantis…
Teacher shortages due to lack of pay and authoritarian policies Book Bans Lack of inclusion Funding our public schools…with critical mental health and free meal resources… Gun safety reform…
Florida students and teachers will no longer have to “declare” their pronouns in school or be forced to use pronouns not based on biological sex.
There is definitely a loss of innocence… Because: Your Divisive Political Policies Teacher shortages Book Bans Lack of inclusion Funding our public schools…with critical mental health and free meal resources… Gun safety reform… https://t.co/t1JY639J6t
"I showed it because of its earth elements…It shows how the Earth really is alive. It has a heart in this movie."
— Jenna Barbee, a Florida teacher under investigation for showing Disney's 'Strange World' with a biracial, gay character, defends her choice to show the PG film pic.twitter.com/U7XIZfkqpx
And this is what our Florida’s teachers are up against…
This summer must be that time for reflection…And begin this critical moment for change…Our public schools must be strong and vital…To survive and thrive!!
Second-grade teacher Barbara Zimmer goes over phonics to her students at Bay Crest Elementary School on Thursday, Jan. 25, 2024, in Tampa. School districts across Florida are reassessing how many teachers they can afford after federal pandemic relief funds dry up. [ JEFFEREE WOO | Times
#FloridaTeacher🍎 Retiring in 2015… 38 years teacher in Alachua Co. Starting in Palatka Putnam Co.1972… traveling 90 miles a day just to teach… We had a surplus of teachers and HOPE… My Heart Breaks for our Teachers… Children …
We must vote… #TakeBackFL #BidenHarris4More 🌊🌀💙📚🇺🇲
Back when I was teaching ten years ago…The political climate was not as divisive as it is today…
We did have some autonomy…And we did strive for that balance of the mandatory curriculum…And those creative fun activities….
February was one of our favorite months filled with creativity…Teaching Black and Presidential History; with those fun Valentine activities…where creative writing was essential…
Janis Sexton...Teacher...Advocate 