A Teacher of the Year at a Florida middle school, posted a message on her Facebook wall that has since gone viral saying that parents need to “step up” when it comes to their children's behavior.
“Okay, I’ll be the bad guy and say what no one else is brave enough to say, but wants to say,” said Kelly Guthrie Raley, Eustis Middle School Teacher of the Year 2017-2018, on her Facebook, after the mass shooting that killed 17 people at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School.
Raley added that she would “take all the criticism and attacks” for her opinion since, as a teacher who holds twenty years of experience, she needs to worry about an active-shooter situation on an everyday basis.
The middle school teacher said that over her almost two decades as an educator, she has seen an increase in violence as well as a lack of compassion among students. As the sixth-grade language arts teacher wrote:
“Until we, as a country, are willing to get serious and talk about mental health issues, lack of available care for the mental health issues, lack of discipline in the home, horrendous lack of parental support when the schools are trying to control horrible behavior at school (oh no! Not MY KID. What did YOU do to cause my kid to react that way?), lack of moral values, and yes, I’ll say it – violent video games that take away all sensitivity to ANY compassion for others’ lives – as well as reality TV that makes it commonplace for people to constantly scream up in each others’ faces and not value any other person but themselves, we will have a gun problem in school”.
Raley, who likes to hunt and four-wheel in her spare time, said that she grew up with guns in her home.
“But you know what? My parents NEVER supported any bad behavior from me,” she said.
She added that, when she started teaching two decades ago, she never had to worry about calling a student’s parents and getting cussed out, told to go to hell, or threatened with a public shaming all because she was calling out their kid’s behavior. Something, she said, has to change.
“Parents, it’s time to step up!” Raley urges. “Be the parent that actually gives a crap! Be the annoying mom that pries and knows what your kid is doing. STOP being their friend. They have enough ‘friends’ at school. Be their parent. Being the ‘cool mom’ means not a damn thing when either your kid is dead, or your kid kills other people because they were allowed to have their space and privacy in YOUR HOME.”
She also doubles down that she had guns in her house.
“But you know what? I never dreamed of shooting anyone with his guns. I never dreamed of taking one! I was taught respect for human life, compassion, rules, common decency, and most of all, I was taught that until I moved out, my life and bedroom wasn’t mine...it was theirs. And they were going to know what was happening because they loved me and wanted the best for me.”
Raley concludes that she never brought up gun control.
“This post wasn’t about gun control. This was me, loving the crap out of people and wanting the best for them. This was about my school babies and knowing that God created each one for greatness, and just wanting them to reach their futures.”
Raley claimed that the only thing she holds even dearer than teaching her students, is her faith and family and that her father, a military hero and her mother, a retired school teacher, inspired her to be who she is today.
Reference: FoxNews
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