It never occurred to Moana Patterson that it would be anything more, having long taught fourth-graders who always seem to be making messes — and sometimes wearing them, too. She handed the boy a wet wipe as he tried to explain and told him to wash it off. And she went back to the whiteboard to teach.
Hours after school had ended, Patterson’s phone started dinging with so many messages coming in so fast that the screen stayed lit up. “Did you see this?” “What happened today?” “Are you OK?” Some included links to the stories where people were calling her “ignorant” and “stupid.