Veteran’s Day is November 11. The reason we celebrate this holiday as a nation is to honor current and passed veterans that served this country. In 1954, President Dwight D. Eisenhower passed a bill to change Armistice Day (The holiday to commemorate the end of World War 1) to Veteran’s Day to honor all U.S. veterans. Some may be confused on the difference between Veteran’s Day and Memorial Day, the difference is Memorial Day honors soldiers who died in service of the military. We celebrate veterans because of their patriotism and courage in honor of this country.
At LRHS, Veteran teachers across the school have been questioned about their time serving in the military for Veteran’s Day coming up.
Milly Harvey – Mustangs Ahead
(LAKEWOOD RANCH, FL) – Lakewood Ranch High School (LRHS) Student Support Specialist Molly Gummerson is a veteran at LRHS.
Gummerson is an Honorably Discharged and Medically Retired US Army Private First-Class Active-Duty Veteran. She served from 2001-2004 as a Military Police Soldier with the 89th Military Police Brigade out of Ft. Leonard Wood, Missouri and Ft. Hood, Texas.
“I was in Basic Training when 9/11 happened,” she said. “I was out on the gun range when they had us drop our weapons and step back toward the cattle trucks that brought us out there.”
She is also a native New Yorker, so she was scared for her family back home and had no way of contacting them because of all the phone lines that were down. Gummerson also had the opportunity to guard Air Force 1 under President George W. Bush.
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After Gummerson’s military time, she studied law enforcement and worked as an investigative assistant. She also had the privilege to help be a founding person with a Restorative Practices initiative creating intervention sites in at-risk schools.
Along the way, she got certified in Exceptional Student Education (ESE) K-12 and Social Sciences 6-12 and went to work in alternative Education as a Behavior Specialist in Sarasota County.
She was asked how she thought that the military and teaching have shaped who she is today; Gummerson declared, “The military gave me a great foundation to do the work that I do now even though I was injured. I'm able to educate teens in lessons no book can ever fully encompass...I try to pass these skills on to my own children as well as our students.”
Gummerson also quotes some advice to give to students, “No matter how hard it gets... Keep Going! Keep moving forward!”