National Memorial to Fallen Educators - Emporia, Kansas The National Memorial to Fallen Educators is located in Emporia, Kansas at Emporia State University as part of the National Teacher Hall of Fame (18th and Merchant). It was erected in 2014 in response to the murders of six educators at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut in 2012 and an Alabama teacher in 2013. It now recognizes educators who perished in the line of duty from accidents, violence or from the global corona virus pandemic I first visited the memorial on June 15, 2022, only days after the Uvalde, Texas tragedy of May 24 and it had been updated with the names of Eva Mireles and Irma Garcia who gave their lives to shelter students at Robb Elementary. I returned to the memorial just 14 months later and was sad to see that seven more educators had died in that short period. It appears they will soon need to add another granite block. The adjacent One Room School House Museum was constructed about 50 miles west of Emporia in 1873, and was Dobbs School. It was donated to Emporia State University in 1969, dismantled, reconstructed at this location and furnished as it might have been in 1895. It can be toured by making an appointment at (620) 341-1200.
copyright 2022-24 by Keith Stokes |
