Issue link: http://educator.cta.org/i/20186
member profile Jonestown survivor found healing through teaching Laura Johnston Kohl has al- ways wanted to make the world a better place. That’s what moti- vated her to become a teacher. It’s also what motivated her to follow the Rev. Jim Jones into the jungle of Guyana more than 30 years ago. This Escondido teacher recently published a book to share her incredible sto- ry with others. She met Jim Jones in1970 af- ter experiencing a failed mar- riage and becoming disillusioned with the hippie movement. In the eyes of Kohl, a college drop- out, Jones’ interracial church was a successful experiment in social justice and helping the down- trodden. For seven years she was active in the San Francisco-based Peoples Temple, and was a wel- fare department eligibility worker. When she moved to Jones town, the agricultural jun- gle community in Guyana, she thought she’d found paradise. There were ominous over- tones, but she ignored them. Looking back, she describes herself and others as somewhat “clueless” and Jones as “insane.” When 900 people were told to drink cyanide-laced Kool- Aid at gunpoint, Kohl happened to be working miles away in Georgetown, the capital of Guy- ana. She was staying in a house with more than 50 other Peoples Temple members, including one mother who killed herself and her three children after receiv- ing a coded message by radio from Jonestown. Kohl arrived later at the home to see them being carried out in body bags by Guyanese officials. She and all the others were placed under house arrest so they wouldn’t harm themselves. When she returned from Guy- ana to California, she was asked by a reporter how it felt to be “home.” She told him that she wasn’t returning home; in fact, she had just left her home in Guy- ana. Nearly everyone she had cared about and everything she had worked toward was gone. “I thought about working with computers, because I wanted to be in front of a com- puter the rest of my life and never have to face another per- son again,” she recalls. “I was a basket case.” She also admits to struggling with survivor guilt for several years, even though she was not there at the time of the massa- cre. “Jim Jones didn’t do what he did single-handedly,” she says. Determined to rebuild her life, she completed college with a double major in philosophy and psychology, and then earned her clear multiple sub- ject teaching credential. She has been an elementary school teacher for 15 years in Califor- nia public schools. Teaching seemed like the natural thing to do. In Jonestown, she had taught 38 California Educator | NOVEMBER 2010 conversational Spanish and arts and crafts to the children. She had taught classes in many ven- ues over the years, from CPR in Spanish to English as a second language in workplaces and schools. “I was determined to heal and thought the best way to do that would be to have an impact on the world, and teaching is the most direct way to do so,” she explains. “I had to find something where I could use all my energy and commitment to making a better world every moment of every day.” Kohl, 62, now teaches sixth- grade English-language arts at Hidden Valley Middle School, and is a member of the Escon- dido Elementary Education As- sociation. She doesn’t talk to her students about Jonestown. But she does talk to them about making good choices and being independent thinkers. “I hold them totally ac- countable,” she says. “I tell them, ‘You’re in sixth grade, and the decisions you make at this point in your life can affect the rest of your life.’” Her book, Jonestown Survi- vor: An Insider’s Look, was pub- lished in March, and is available through iUniverse and Amazon. It took Kohl more than 30 years to get to the point where she could put her experiences into written words. Once she started, the process took three years. Af- ter it was published, she worried at first about what her colleagues might think. She says they have been very supportive of her, and that many of them have bought copies of her book. Kohl bel ieves that she would have been happy living the rest of her life in Jonestown if tragedy had not struck. Jones, whom she describes as a “master actor” who was able to control others through the art of manipulation, was mentally ill and addicted to drugs, says Kohl. He was also deteriorat- ing physically and did not want to die alone. Kohl wishes that Jim Jones had indeed died, so that others could have been able to carry on their dream of living in an egalitarian, self- sufficient community. Kohl says she wrote the book because she wanted to dignify those who had died in Jonestown, and wanted others to know who they were. She al- so hopes her story will inspire others to overcome adversity, just as she has. “I have learned from my ex- periences and from writing this book that I can do anything I want to do,” says Kohl. “I have learned that nothing can stop me, once I set my mind to it.” SHERRY POSNICK-GOODWIN San Diego professor preserves history of Jonestown Check out our Web exclu- sive online at www.cta.org/ jonestown, where SDSU religious studies professor Rebecca Moore talks about her website, which offers a venue for updates and new insights about the tragedy at Jonestown. Photo by Scott Buschman