Jeri-Lynn Betts, an early childhood teacher in the Watertown, Wisconsin, school district, died on March 8 of an apparent suicide.That's all well and good, but it clearly had nothing to do with events that would follow.
A colleague says she was “very distraught” over Gov. Scott Walker’s attacks on public sector workers and public education.
Betts, 56, was a dedicated teacher who was admired in the Watertown community.
“She was an amazing person,” says the Rev. Terry Larson of the Immanuel Evangelical Lutheran Church in Watertown, where she was a member. “She really put her heart and soul in her work,” adds Larson, who officiated at her memorial service on March 15.
“She was one of the good guys,” says Karen Stefonek, who used to teach with Betts. “She was very, very dedicated, and worked so well with the little special needs children. She just was very, very good with them, and very well respected in the district.”
In the days after Betts’s death, two members of the school district contacted The Progressive about her death, calling it a suicide and saying it was connected, at least in part, to the policies that Walker has proposed. He has demanded that public workers, including teachers, contribute a significant amount of their salaries to health care and pensions. And in his budget, he proposed taking $900 million out of the public schools, imposing a freeze on property taxes so local governments can’t chip in more for education, and allowing any student, regardless of income, to go to a private school with a taxpayer subsidy.
“She was definitely very distraught about it,” said one of her co-workers, who requested anonymity. “She was feeling a lot of stress about the legislation that was going through.”
“Susan advised me that Geri had a long history of depression,” Officer Jeffrey Meloy wrote in his report.Safe to say that long history began long before Scott Walker became Wisconsin's governor.
The sensitive left reacts by wishing death on Walker.
What a shame! We can’t give in to the idiots that are trying to kill us! Fuck Walker and the rest of the treasonous outlaws: Let’s make sure that THEY are the ones who cut their wrists, not us!
How convenient for the libs that this happened after the walk-outs. What if this obviously disturbed woman decided to make her point (suicide) in front of a classroom full of children. Think of the horror.
ReplyDeleteDepending upon ones politics, you can spin this story half a dozen ways and all of them would probably be wrong. Anyone disturbed enough to take their own life needs intense therapy and blaming politics from either direction isn't going to fix whatever ailed this woman.
Wise up you sleazy fuckers and help this womans family to begin the healing process. This isn't a political football you creeps. Look for the real reasons this woman took her own life instead of trying to score some cheap points and blaming Governor Walker you douchebags.
Mental disease = democrap.
I blame Bush.
ReplyDeleteTypical communists.
ReplyDeleteBeing stupid AND having no conscience is a dangerous combination.