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WIBW
Ralph Hipp

Emporia State's Memorial honoring Fallen Educators is now the nation's honor to them.

President Trump signed the bill Monday, designating the honors as a National Memorial to them. The bill for the national designation was sponsored by Senator Jerry Moran and 1st District Congressman Roger Marshall. 

The new National Memorial to Fallen Educators will continue to be operated and maintained by the National Teachers Hall of Fame, and Emporia State University, the Hall's home base. 

The impressive memorial is a gateway to the campus grounds, and was inspired after the tragic deaths of six educators slain at Sandy Hook Elementary in Newtown, Connecticut in December of 2012, as well as the death of an Alabama educator in early 2013.

It now bears the names of nearly 120 educators who died doing what they loved most, educating children and teens. One of the many names is Christa McAuliffe, the teacher who trained to become a Shuttle astronaut, before she perished in the Challenger explosion on January 28, 1986.

Since the Hall of Fame will be its administrator, the Memorial won't be an actual part of the National Parks Service or receive federal funding. But it does now become the first National Memorial of any kind, to be located in Kansas.

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