It is almost two weeks to the day that all of us at the School for Language and Communication Development (SLCD) first became aware of the tragic events surrounding Leah Walsh. During those initial days, we were overwhelmed by the shocking reality that someone within the SLCD family had been brutally taken from us.
I share these thoughts with the public because I would like to express my deepest appreciation for the telephone calls, letters and donations that we received from “total strangers.”
It is my hope that what I have to share about the last two weeks will shed some light on the enormity of this tragedy and what we had to do as a school for children with disabilities to cope. My motivation here is to state categorically that I want Leah Walsh to be remembered for what she did as a special education teacher rather than for the events related to her demise. I thought that we would be the collateral damage that would be quickly forgotten.
Special education teachers have a “calling” requiring a degree of motivation, which is unusual in most professions. To survive in special education, you have to love the children that you are working with because very often they cannot reciprocate or express their feelings in return.
In addition, these are not typical students who learn with ease and remember their lessons first time around. Learning is a struggle so teachers must be extremely creative and persistent. They must also accept very small gains and they must be challenged by their students’ initial failures.
You have to be a very special person to stay in special education over the long haul of a professional career. Leah was intrigued by her students’ difficulties. She never gave up on their work or on her expectations for their success. When I met Mr. & Mrs. Hirschel, Leah’s parents, I told them that as a teacher, she was a gift to her students.
What did we learn as a school? We have all been affected by Leah’s loss. As administrators, teachers, parents and students we have come together to talk about our different experiences with this event and about her loss.
Perhaps the most profound understanding occurred during a seminar, which was presented by a colleague, Dr. Mark Lerner, who is an expert on traumatic stress. One of the parents shared that her child asked, “Is my teacher gone? Was my teacher gone yesterday? Will my teacher be gone tomorrow?” With severe disabilities, our children struggle with trying to understand the loss and what it means.
We cannot underestimate either the gift of a wonderful teacher or the capabilities of children with disabilities. Just because children do not talk does not mean that they do not think or they do not feel. In dealing with Leah’s loss, we have learned a great deal about our inner strengths and the abilities of our children with disabilities to understand, perhaps in a different way, the world around us.
Special education teachers in New York State are underpaid and underappreciated. They earn significantly less than professionals in private industry. Leah could have worked anywhere but she chose SLCD. I do not want to remember her for the tragic events that occurred but rather for the self-sacrificing teacher that she was.
So on Leah’s behalf, I want to thank the general public who we now know for their kind thoughts and letters - especially the Francis F. Wilson School, the Courtesy Bus Company, the Tufano Family in Minnesota and John James Benefits, Ltd. In the future, I will write and correspond only about what Leah did as a special education teacher and about the memorial that we have created for her - Leah’s Children.
Ellenmorris Tiegerman, Ph.D. is the founder and executive director at the School for Language and Communication Development.
