To the Editor:

Sandy Hook Promise, an organization formed by the parents who lost their children in the Sandy Hook Elementary School shooting in 2012, released a PSA this week, “Back-To-School Essentials,” which has already gone viral; it reminds us with the new school year comes new shootings. It might be that new pair of scissors that saves a child’s life if they need a way to defend themselves against an attacker. Bloody and difficult to watch, it is meant to stir emotions, and it is effective.

As a teacher in Colorado public school, I always had a keen understanding of the potential dangers. During my first year of teaching in 2013, just miles away from my classroom, a shooting took place at Arapahoe High School — two people died. The talk in the teacher’s lounge changed from not “if” a shooting would happen but “when” a shooting would happen.

I had to go to jail to find a safe place to teach. That’s not an exaggeration or said for hyperbolic effect to catch your attention. It is the hard, cold truth. Bottom line, we protect our prisoners in this country better than we protect our students. I know this to be true because after six years of teaching English in what many would consider the best public school district in Colorado, I moved to teaching in a women’s prison.

Prisoners in the CDOC earn their place in the classroom based on good behavior, and they are motivated to keep this privilege. They are hard working and engaged — a teacher’s dream! Not only do I have an amazing group of students, but safety is ensured by the cameras in every room, armed Correctional Officers, panic buttons in all the classrooms, and a personal alarm device that I carry. Suffice it to say, I feel safe.

I was fortunate to have a job offer from a local private school just days before the offer came from the CDOC, and the decision was an easy one. I chose the place where I could make the greatest impact on society and where I felt safest: behind bars with felons rather than an open campus with teenagers.

The first school massacre at Columbine happened over 20 years ago. How many more teachers and students have to die before real change happens? The lives of the families of Sandy Hook and Columbine have been changed forever, and they don’t want us to forget. I hope our children will learn to make real change in their voting decisions with regards to gun control and access to mental health. I hope the senseless murders will cease, and teachers and students won’t have to know the best place to hide in a classroom in order to avoid getting hit by stray bullets if a shooter is on a rampage in the hallway. This is my new American Dream.

Wendy Yeager

5061 S. Florence Drive, Greenwood Village, Colo. September 20, 2019