Education Week records that there have been 27 school shootings so far this year, and there have been 119 school shootings since 2018

The news coverage following such incidents in the US usually focuses on the event, comments from witnesses and politicians arguing for or against gun control. Little is reported on how teachers handle and cope with the catastrophe themselves while remaining strong for the students under their care.

Regardless of their political stance, teachers have been the victims and witnesses of violence, as well as the protectors of their students and consolers in the aftermath.

Mourning the death of their students while also comforting and counseling the surviving classmates is not part of teachers’ job specifications. Yet there have been teachers in such nerve-racking, life-altering ordeals, and they remain brave and strong.

Little were the teachers (or any other professionals) prepared to be in that situation. They may have undergone training and drills on emergency situations, including a school attack. But no teacher signs up for this situation when they enter the profession. Yet they were there and remained strong.

The teaching profession is not for the faint of heart. Teachers are strong. In their field of work, they have often been tested to stretch their human capacity to the limit of not breaking down when experiencing the destruction of human lives by other human beings, many of whom are possibly still school-age, through their acts of atrocity.

Even when no teacher is ever prepared to be there, those who have remained strong for their students are teachers who have signed up to uphold values of human dignity and compassion. They have committed to dedicating their hearts to their students.

In the 2007 Virginia Tech shooting incident, where 31 people were killed, Liviu Librescu, a science and engineering professor and a Holocaust survivor from Romania, forcibly prevented the deranged gunman from entering his classroom by holding the door closed with his body until most of his students had escaped through the windows. After kicking open the window screens, the students successfully escaped.

Through the window, Librescu was shot four times, including through his wrist watch. Two others who were lying in a corner near the windows were injured but survived and later said that after most of their classmates had escaped through the windows and after the armed aggressor had shot four times through the door, he finally forced his way in.

Upon seeing the open windows and hardly any students in the room, the gunman confronted Prof. Librescu and fatally shot him in the temple

The school shooting may be the ultimate test of teachers’ strength, one from which the majority of teachers are spared.

Many teachers have experienced less horrifying but also heart-wrenching ordeals. For example, some teachers have stood up for their students who were victims of domestic abuse. While some teachers might have chosen to avoid confrontation with abusers only to regret later when the victim was killed, other teachers cared for their students enough to take a stand and attempt to stop the abuse while risking their own lives.

A case in point, an educator in Singapore suspected one of her students was being abused and confronted the suspected perpetrator. Surprisingly, the abusive father threatened the educator, “You’ll be next.” Fear, however, did not deter her from pursuing the matter and reporting it to the police.

Another example of teachers’ courage involved a teacher in one remote island in Indonesia. Knowing an orphaned student was about to be sold by her uncle to a human-trafficking ring, this teacher defied the gang by going to a charity organization that was able to save the young girl by finding her a shelter in Java.

The majority of teachers have been fortunate enough not to have experienced such ordeals. Yet even the day-to-day challenges in classrooms, schools and communities that all teachers have to face are stretching their hearts inch by inch and making them grow stronger every day.

No more teachers ought to take that ultimate test of strength in the future. But every dedicated teacher should be prepared for any test to stand by their integrity and values as an educator in the best interests of their students.

 ***

Anita Lie is a professor at Widya Mandala Catholic University, Surabaya. George Jacobs teaches at Universiti Malaya, Kuala Lumpur.