Can you imagine this happening in Forest Lake High School in Minneapolis?

Seeing the photographs, newspaper clippings, letters from deployed soldiers and the pair of combat boots hanging on Tonie Moya’s office wall, it’s easy to assume the attendance keeper at Hopewell Middle School in Round Rock has relatives serving overseas in the military.

But she doesn’t.

Since the terrorist attacks of Sept. 11, 2001, Moya has continuously sent care packages to deployed troops and keeps her office shrine up to date with news clippings, photos and letters she receives from service members deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan.

[snip]

As attendance keeper, Moya’s office is near the front door of the school, and her wall is visible to students and parents when they come into the school.

Many of the soldiers honored on the wall are brothers, sisters or fathers of students at Hopewell.

Every year at any given time, six or seven students have relatives who are deployed, said Principal Anthony Watson, whose brother is serving in the Army in Iraq.

“It’s so awesome when you see one of the students here at the window and they know I have a picture here of their brother or sister,” Moya said.

“Sometimes, they’ll come down here and just look at the pictures, and you know that it brings peace to them,” she said.

What kind of principle could possibly allow for this kind of overt display of patriotism in broad view of young, impressionable young minds?

Oh, that’s right — one who has a brother serving in the Army in Iraq.

My only concern is that a bunch of anti-military parents who didn’t know about this tribute to our troops are going to freak out about it and try to have it barred or dismantled.

However, unlike the no-balls coward principle up in Minneapolis, I’ll bet this Texas principle won’t back down.

Posted by Robbie Cooper on Wednesday, March 26th, 2008 | Trackback |