Randy Turner

No Child Left Alive Randy Turner

Publisher Marketing: If the shooter doesn't get them, the system will. That proved to be the case for author Randy Turner, as the veteran teacher was fired from his teaching job in Joplin, Missouri, for writing this book. No Child Left Alive tells the story of one year at dysfunctional Franklin Heights High School, where the teachers battle administrators seeking to pad their resumes at the expense of the students' education and find themselves at the mercy of a criminal element that has been lured back into the school in a misguided effort to increase graduation rates. At the center of the storm is Assistant Superintendent Abigail Saucier, who after being passed over for the top job after the death of the former superintendent (and Abigail's lover) is determined to make Franklin Heights a model of innovation through a series of new programs that confound and frustrate the faculty. Abigail also has to deal with a deadbeat husband, a promiscuous daughter, and a growing attraction to her daughter's boyfriend, drug-dealing gang leader Rico Salazar. Opposing Abigail's plans to remake education at Franklin Heights is Teacher of the Year Walter Tollivar, who has his own problems- a crippling case of claustrophobia, and an attraction to a younger teacher, who five years earlier had been one of his students, and who is now so afraid of her own students that she has begun carrying a gun. As the teachers battle to hold on to their sanity, a bullied student plans a revenge designed to make everyone forget Columbine. No Child Left Alive is a satirical, yet frightening, view of education in Obama's America- a wasteland where test scores and statistics are everything, and teachers are cannon fodder for glory-hungry administrators and clueless politicians. Contributor Bio:  Turner, Randy Randy Turner is an eighth grade English teacher at Joplin East Middle School. Prior to entering the educational field, Turner was a reporter and editor at various Southwest Missouri newspapers for more than two decades, receiving more than 100 national, state, and regional awards, including 30 for investigative reporting. He is the author of four books, two novels, Small Town News and Devil's Messenger and two non-fiction, Newspaper Days and The Turner Report. John Hacker is the award-winning managing editor of The Carthage Press, and former editor of the Joplin Daily. Hacker, a graduate of Missouri Southern State University in Joplin, has been one of the top reporters and photographers in Missouri for the past two decades, with a reputation for covering breaking news. Hacker is recognized as a top weather photographer and has had numerous lightning photos exhibited.