I am a firm believer that you never know how you will handle a situation until it is thrust upon you. Recently my town has been thrust into a situation that I think we should handle better. A former guidance counselor at my high school was convicted of being a child rapist, and some of the community decided to be character witnesses and appeal to her good nature.

Growing up watching crime shows, I could never understand how people could defend others who had committed such a crime. However, I can understand it now. The people who defended her did not know her the way she is now portrayed. They knew her as a good friend, a reliable colleague, and a caring person. They knew all the best parts of her and thought other people should know them as well before they judged her. I completely agree with what they did, and if I was in their situation I would like to believe that I would do the same.

However, parents in my town are not as open-minded about this as I am. The superintendent of schools was forced out of his position for defending her and now some of the moms have taken to making banners. These banners are weatherproof and huge. There are two different ones. One of them lists the names of three teachers in particular and say they supported a convicted child rapist. The other has the pictures of the teachers plastered on it claiming “OUR CHILDREN DESERVE BETTER!”

I find this completely disgusting. You can disagree with someone’s actions but no matter what they did, no one deserves to be humiliated and bullied like this. Our opinions of someone should not have the power to ruin someone's life and that is exactly the goal of these banners. These moms are hell bent to humiliate and bully these teachers and are using their children as a way to do it. The teachers aren’t even the only ones affected by this, their friends and families are too. My question to these moms is, how can you live with yourselves after doing this? Not only are you humiliating these teachers but what about your kids? Do they really believe their children will listen to another warning about bullying when they see their mother do something like this? Do they believe their child will still respect them and look up to them?

Although parents may want these teachers to retire, this was not the right way to go about it. I understand that people think that they now have no right to teach but defending her didn’t make them bad at their job. They are still quality teachers and loyal friends who stood up for a friend in need and if anything, I think that makes them just a little bit better than the others who sat back and said nothing.