“Take me instead. They’re just babies.”
That was the prayer of those babies’ teacher, Anna Canaday. When the Oklahoma tornado hit Plaza Towers Elementary School Monday, she and her colleague, Jessica Simonds, tried to get the kindergartners to shelter. There was no time. She shielded her babies with her body, saving them when a black Ford blew into the school hallway and fell on top of her. When rescuers removed the car, they found the two teachers badly hurt. The children were under them had minor scratches.
Anna was not alone in a spontaneous combustion of courage. So many others acted with no thought of their own safety – they only thought of their babies. They calmed frightened children so that they were able to march them into closets and bathrooms and under desks. They hugged them and comforted them. They loved them.
Some of the students at the Horizonte Center in Salt Lake City have painted a mural in the front entryway. It is magnificent. It shows the faces of teachers, principals, support staff and community leaders who love them.
