February 22, 2018 Marissa Schimmoeller, an English teacher at Delphos Jefferson High School in Ohio returned to her high school classroom […]
February 22, 2018
Marissa Schimmoeller, an English teacher at Delphos Jefferson High School in Ohio returned to her high school classroom the day after the mass school shooting in Parkland, Florida, with a heavy heart.
Schimmoeller went to school that day prepared to tell her students exactly what they should do in the case of an active shooter on their own campus. It turned out her students had a plan of their own.
Today was really hard for me. Today was the first time I had to teach the day after a mass school shooting. I dreaded…
Опубликовано Marissa Schimmoeller 15 февраля 2018 г.
“Today was really hard for me. Today was the first time I had to teach the day after a mass school shooting. I dreaded facing my students this morning, and as the first students walked in, I began to feel the anxiety pooling in my stomach. I was dreading one specific question. Soon after class began, a freshman asked me the question I had been dreading since I had heard about the tragedy in Florida.”
“Mrs. Schimmoeller,” she asked. “What will we do if a shooter comes in your room?”
When her student asked what they should do in case of an attack, Schimmoeller said she felt “a bolt of fear and sadness run through me. I definitely don’t have all the answers, but I want them to feel safe in my classroom.”
On Facebook, Schimmoeller wrote that she told the students,
“I want you to know that I care deeply about each and every one of you and that I will do everything I can to protect you. But — being in a wheelchair, I will not be able to protect you the way an able-bodied teacher will. And if there is a chance for you to escape, I want you to go. Do not worry about me. Your safety is my number one priority.”
That’s when her students brought her to tears.
“Slowly, quietly, as the words I had said sunk in, another student raised their hand,” the teacher wrote in her post. “She said, ‘Mrs. Schimmoeller, we already talked about it. If anything happens, we are going to carry you.’”
The story has been liked over 33,000 times on Facebook and shared more than 18,000 times.
“With tears in my eyes as I type this, I want my friends and family to know that I understand that it is hard to find the good in the world, especially after a tragedy like the one that we have watched unfold, but there is good. True goodness. It was found in the hearts of my students today.”