Teaching Compassion from One Teacher's Story
You may recall the story earlier this year about a Tacoma kindergarten teacher who was removed from her classroom because she was drunk. I think most of us were aghast at hearing that.
But one person, reporter Matt Driscolll at the Tacoma News Tribune, wanted to know more. He wrote this piece that appeared this week,
This kindergarten teacher was fired for being drunk. Three months later, she was dead.
It's a beautiful story, written with compassion. It's about how every single person has a story especially beyond their death.
But one person, reporter Matt Driscolll at the Tacoma News Tribune, wanted to know more. He wrote this piece that appeared this week,
This kindergarten teacher was fired for being drunk. Three months later, she was dead.
It's a beautiful story, written with compassion. It's about how every single person has a story especially beyond their death.
Klara’s story, on the other hand, is one with trauma and addiction at its center. Like roughly 17 million people in the United States, she battled alcoholism. Unlike most, however, Klara’s struggle was very public.
It’s a struggle that ended in early June, when she took her own life. She was 33.
“I begged reporters not to use her name … even though they had the right to do so,” recalls Tacoma Public Schools spokesman Dan Voelpel. “While her actions meant she could no longer teach for us, she did not deserve to be publicly shamed.”
In deciding to share their late daughter’s story, Klara’s parents hope to inspire difficult — but needed — conversations about how we view alcoholism and addiction.
Comments
That poor family, to lose both their daughters.
My husband quit drinking when he was about that age.
It never affected his work, but it affected everything else.
But he has now been sober for almost 30 years, and he comes from a long line of alcoholics on both sides of his family.
I hope that someone sees this story and decides to get help.
CT
reader47
- Fan of local newspaper journalism