Alamogordo, NM, Feb 17 (BUS): On previous deployments of the Army, National Guard. Michael Stockwell monitored a deserted section of the US-Mexico border during a wave of immigrants, guarding a ring of checkpoints and fences around the New Mexico State Capitol after the January 2021 rebellion in Washington.
In his current assignment, Stockwell assists students with assignments as a substitute science teacher at Alamogordo High School.
“You can’t represent the army with these kids. You can’t talk the same way you talk to another soldier with these kids. You can’t treat them the same way. You have to be careful with corrective actions,” he said with a laugh.
Dozens of New Mexico’s National Guard and Air Force personnel are intervening for emergencies unlike others to which they have responded before: a shortage of teachers and faculty that has tested schools nationwide’s ability to continue operating during the coronavirus pandemic. AP reports.
While several states and other school districts have issued appeals to substitute teachers amid an Omicron-driven increase in infections, New Mexico has been alone in recalling members of the National Guard. In 36 of the state’s 89 school districts, Guard members traded mission summaries of lesson plans to work in school systems.
When Stockwell first entered science class, dressed in camouflage uniforms and combat boots, some students thought he was just visiting, like a recruit. Then he sat on the teacher’s chair.
“When he started to show up, I was like ‘whoa.’” said Lily Terrazas, 15, from Alamogordo. “I was kind of nervous because, you know – a guy in a uniform. But it was wonderful. He helped me.”
Nearly 80 service members volunteered to work in the schools. Troops have undergone background checks and taken required brief courses for substitute teachers. As alternatives, they do not have to learn much about the curriculum, but they must be attentive to the students.
Stockwell has been in the position since late January when a teacher of his students moved to an administrative position at another school. On a recent day, he wandered among the rows of school desks, kneeling to meet the students face to face as he helped them with tasks to calculate the depth of the Earth’s crust, and other layers of the planet.
Governor Michelle Logan Grisham, a Democrat, called in the Sentinel to help with an acute shortage in a state like many others that have struggled to find enough teachers. At least 100 schools have reported closing for at least one day this school year.
New Mexico saw an increase in teacher retirements last fall, and there are currently about 1,000 teaching positions open in a state of about 20,000 teachers. Gresham emphasized that the deployment of guards is a temporary measure, and state officials are working to bolster teaching strength and school staff through wage increases and other strategies.
In Alamogordo, the teacher shortage peaked on January 13, when 30 teachers, about a third of the faculty, were out of school due to illness, vocational training or family emergencies.
“Everyone was enjoying their vacation and things like that, and then they came back and got sick,” said Rah Burns, one of two Alamogordo High School secretaries tasked with filling their teaching shifts each morning. “I know I will receive Mr. Stockwell every morning and he is fine to go where I need him to go.”
In some communities, concerns have been raised about soldiers going to the classroom. School district spokesman Cody Dinarsky said that in Santa Fe, the school district was asked if soldiers would wear uniforms and carry guns. Guns were always out of the question. The district decided that soldiers should wear civilian clothes.
In the end, Santa Fe and Albuquerque, two of the largest urban school districts, received no soldiers despite their requests because deployments prioritized smaller, more rural school districts.
Elsewhere, when selection was made, some soldiers chose to wear a military uniform over civilian clothing to bring respect in class, especially if they were not much older than their students.
“I think I look like an 18-year-old who doesn’t wear a uniform,” said Cassandra Sierra, 22, of Roswell, New Mexico, who worked as a substitute teacher at a Hobbs high school.
Sera already works with children in her day job as a student coordinator at a military boarding school in Roswell, which gave her an advantage as an alternative.
“Kids just need patience,” she said. “I think I have a lot of patience.”
At a middle school at Holloman Air Force Base in Alamogordo, students are used to seeing people in uniform, but not in the classroom.
“I was like, ‘Oh, we have someone in uniform who will teach us. This is kinda embarrassing. “It was a strange thing,” said Andrew George, 12, of computer classes he was taking led by a woman trained in combat with experience leading a platoon overseas. “Once she introduced herself I was like ‘Oh yeah, that’s going to be fun. “
The alternate, Lieutenant Amanda Zulu, works at the 911 dispatch center in Albuquerque when she’s not training or serving with the Ranger. She kept students on assignment during a class on cybersecurity, where they created each other’s passwords and then tried to crack them.
She was hiring a teacher who was having trouble finding childcare. The principal, Whitney Anderson, said getting Zollo’s services meant that for the first time that week she didn’t have to take over the management of the classroom herself.
Zulu does not speak of her work as an infantry officer with her cadets, which she describes, after nervous laughter, as “engaging and destroying the enemies of the United States in close combat.”