I didn’t know Dan Marburger, principal at Perry High School in Perry, Iowa, but I know he was the kind of principal who put kids first. His actions bore that out when he was critically wounded protecting the lives of his students when a 17-year-old starting shooting in the joint middle and high school cafeteria on January 4th. An 11-year-old 6th grader was killed, and Marburger died 10 days later from his wounds.
And let me repeat that: A high school principal died protecting kids from gun fire. I can guarantee you that was not part of his job description. Unfortunately, that description is becoming increasingly implied for all educators now.
And unfortunately, the responses to events like this range from the offensive to simple pabulum. A presidential candidate stated that the people affected needed “to move on,” and then are always those who after these shootings happen cluck their tongues and advocate prayer as some sort of answer.
I got some news on that one: prayer ain’t working and prayer isn’t substitute for effective public policy.
Some years ago, I was in an active shooter training as a high school principal. We were in a classroom with local EMTs and paramedics who were showing us how to properly apply tourniquets to gunshot wounds. I hated the training because of what it stood for: it was important we in that room knew how to do this just in case. We weren’t military personal, or police officers or fight fighters or any other profession where the risk of real bodily harm as always there. We were educators, and this was our new world and we needed to know.
Just in case.
