This headline hit me hard. I remember back in the day when parents first began feeling scared about our children's basic safety in school. I thought some of the fear was little bit over the top. This was before metal detectors, children bringing knives and guns and before outsiders showed up in trench coats and automatic weapons shooting to kill.
With all that to fear, now I'm wondering: what is the average teacher or principal personnel going to do if / when they feel threatened by a student of the school -- the person they ostensibly are arming them to protect.
I see all kinds of scenarios:
1,) two students are fighting and one seemingly reaches in his / her pocket.
2.) a student is overly aggressive possibly due to side affects of medication, etc.
I bow my head in sadness to take in that our children do not feel themselves basically safe. In the fifth grade I did not feel very safe either. I had integrated an all white school and everyday the football team would line up as I was walking the walkway to enter school and call me nigger over and over. This same football team had beat up one other black student on the bus. These were scary times. This fear was tempered with a sense of power that I was taking action to affect some change. (I truly believed this move to integrate would solve our problems; I know the limits of the benefits of the action now, and I know more about the cost).
Anyway, I was able to stay sane and endure the abuse and also manage my scares because I was fighting; resisting oppression.
As our young people find their ways to resist oppression; to heal from some of the wounds of oppression and to take action to build the world they desire for themselves, their families, our people and the world (in that order), they too will not only stay sane, they will thrive.
With all that to fear, now I'm wondering: what is the average teacher or principal personnel going to do if / when they feel threatened by a student of the school -- the person they ostensibly are arming them to protect.
I see all kinds of scenarios:
1,) two students are fighting and one seemingly reaches in his / her pocket.
2.) a student is overly aggressive possibly due to side affects of medication, etc.
I bow my head in sadness to take in that our children do not feel themselves basically safe. In the fifth grade I did not feel very safe either. I had integrated an all white school and everyday the football team would line up as I was walking the walkway to enter school and call me nigger over and over. This same football team had beat up one other black student on the bus. These were scary times. This fear was tempered with a sense of power that I was taking action to affect some change. (I truly believed this move to integrate would solve our problems; I know the limits of the benefits of the action now, and I know more about the cost).
Anyway, I was able to stay sane and endure the abuse and also manage my scares because I was fighting; resisting oppression.
As our young people find their ways to resist oppression; to heal from some of the wounds of oppression and to take action to build the world they desire for themselves, their families, our people and the world (in that order), they too will not only stay sane, they will thrive.
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