Overview:
Lecturers as soon as assigned tales about dystopia and sacrifice to warn of ethical decay. Now, we’re residing inside them.
By Kelsey Trumble
We hand college students dystopian novels—1984, Fahrenheit 451, The Starvation Video games—as warnings about what occurs when worry turns into regular, when reality bends, when cruelty turns quiet. However someplace alongside the way in which, the fiction blurred.
Now, when one other trainer bleeds in a classroom, the outrage burns by way of feeds sooner than details can catch up. We repost. We tweet. We share. We sew it on TikTok till the story loops like background noise—one other tragedy buried beneath political hashtags and usernames. Reality burns, then fades, leaving solely the smoke. And whereas the headlines cycle and the feedback rage, the clocks on lecturers’ and college students’ lives maintain tik-toking down.
In 1984, reality is rewritten till residents doubt what they noticed. We’re the lecturers—residing in doublethink, listening to that nobody may have predicted a trainer can be shot by a six-year-old, even after the warnings had been filed. We keep in mind in a different way. They’re the officers—posting statements, retweeting condolences, rewriting reality to guard the system that failed us.
In Lamb to the Slaughter, the lamb—the image of innocence—is cooked and served to cover the crime. We’re the lecturers and the youngsters—supplied up time and again, our innocence consumed to take care of appearances. They’re the officers—consuming the proof, calling it tragedy, complimenting the meal. After Uvalde, we watched press conferences as an alternative of safety.
In The Lottery, neighbors stone one among their very own as a result of that’s what they’ve all the time performed. We’re the chosen names drawn from the black field. They’re the bystanders—mourning in public, shifting on in personal, accepting the following sacrifice as inevitable. After Sandy Hook, we stated “by no means once more.” However the stones by no means stopped falling. Every year, one other identify is drawn. One other classroom. One other little one. The ritual continues—stone by stone, bell by bell.
In Lord of the Flies, the youngsters descend into chaos as a result of the adults by no means return. We’re the stranded—constructing fragile order from lesson plans and lockdown drills. They’re the adults who by no means got here again—too distant to note that the island continues to be on fireplace. After Parkland, it was the scholars who grew to become the adults we would have liked—exhibiting up in particular person whereas others hid behind screens.
We used to show these books so our college students would acknowledge cruelty earlier than it took root. Now we train them whereas residing inside their pages. We used to imagine tales may save us. Now, we’re the story.
The Abby Zwerner civil trial has pressured the nation to confront what lecturers have identified for years: our warnings are ignored till blood is spilled. On January 6, 2023, Zwerner was shot in her first-grade classroom after alerting directors that the coed had a gun. Her lawsuit alleges that the district dismissed repeated warnings (CourtTV, 2025). Her calm after being shot—guiding twenty terrified kids to security—was known as heroic. Nevertheless it shouldn’t have needed to be.
Educating in America has turn out to be an act of quiet martyrdom.
Educating in America has turn out to be an act of quiet martyrdom. In line with the Nationwide Heart for Schooling Statistics (2024), one in 5 lecturers reviews feeling unsafe at college, and almost 60 % say they’ve thought of leaving the career prior to now yr. The American Psychological Affiliation (2023) discovered that educators expertise increased charges of secondary trauma than health-care staff, usually stemming from repeated lockdown drills and publicity to scholar violence. Many people flinch on the sound of the intercom—the coded phrase, “This can be a lockdown drill.” A few of us can’t sleep afterward. We joke about it to manage, however the jokes style like iron.
We’re the lecturers—guardians, counselors, human shields. They’re the policymakers and directors who reward our bravery whereas refusing to fund security measures or mental-health sources. We’re anticipated to be each saints and troopers, anticipated to die defending kids whose mother and father could vote in opposition to the very insurance policies that may maintain us alive.
The emotional toll of this actuality is staggering. A 2023 RAND report discovered that trainer burnout is at a historic excessive, with 52 % describing frequent job-related stress and 44 % reporting signs of despair. The Facilities for Illness Management (2023) recorded a pointy improve in educator mental-health claims following main college shootings, even amongst these circuitously affected. Lockdown drills—as soon as framed as proactive security measures—now retraumatize each lecturers and college students. Kids cry. Lecturers shake. And the lesson continues as if nothing occurred.
We’re the lecturers—performing calm for the youngsters whereas our hearts race. They’re the observers—watching footage of our drills, praising our composure, after which altering the channel.
A few of us are mother and father, too. Our personal kids is perhaps sitting a couple of lecture rooms away whereas we’re skilled to throw ourselves between theirs and the gunfire. We’re requested to decide on—intuition or obligation—and the query alone is a wound.
Instructor security and psychological well being are usually not aspect points; they’re the muse of training. The Nationwide Schooling Affiliation (2024) advocates for federal funding at school psychological well being professionals, enhanced safety infrastructure, and trauma-informed coaching. However coverage with out accountability is simply one other headline.
We’re the lecturers—bleeding from price range cuts and burnout. They’re the lawmakers—passing the duty down the chain till it lands, as soon as once more, in our palms.
If the nation really believes we’re heroes, then it should cease asking us to be martyrs. It should cease demanding sacrifice and begin providing safety.
On daily basis, lecturers stroll into lecture rooms which have turn out to be battlegrounds of worry and expectation. We tape over home windows, stack desks in opposition to doorways, whisper “I like you” to our college students earlier than drills start. We do it as a result of we love them—as a result of they’re kids, and since somebody should.
We used to show The Lottery so our college students would query the rituals society accepts. Now, we stay inside one—watching names drawn from the black field of probability. We used to inform them 1984 was fiction. Now, we right the file solely in whispers.
We’re the lecturers—bleeding, grieving, enduring. They’re those with the ability to cease this—if solely they selected to see.
The query will not be whether or not lecturers will maintain exhibiting up. It’s whether or not America will lastly determine that our lives—and our college students’ lives—are value greater than the following press convention.
Kelsey Trumble is a passionate ex-teacher turned graduate scholar, diving deep into the world of scientific psychological well being counseling. As a proud mother of two, I do know firsthand the significance of nurturing younger minds and hearts, which is why I based Child Thrive Academy; an enrichment program for youngsters. I’m extremely enthusiastic about fostering wholesome our bodies and minds in kids and attempt to advertise wellness in everybody!
References (APA)
American Psychological Affiliation. (2023). Educator stress and secondary trauma report. Washington, DC: APA.
Facilities for Illness Management and Prevention. (2023). Psychological well being of training professionals, United States. Atlanta, GA: CDC.
CourtTV. (2025). Abby Zwerner civil trial protection. Retrieved from https://www.courttv.com
Nationwide Heart for Schooling Statistics. (2024). Faculty security and local weather survey. Washington, DC: U.S. Division of Schooling.
Nationwide Schooling Affiliation. (2024). Coverage transient: Defending educators and college students by way of complete security reform. Washington, DC: NEA.
RAND Company. (2023). Instructor well-being and burnout report. Santa Monica, CA: RAND.
