Where Are Black Children Safe?

[thejackpot]

I feel like I have read this before. Is that what it is going to be like?? These types of things occur so frequently that any discussions feel like deja vu. I am sickened and saddened because I ache for that young girl and the lesson that she was so brutally taught. She will forever be altered and no amount of apology will change that. I view that video as a death. A huge part of her died and she will have footage of that moment to haunt her if her memory fails her. That is just wrong.
As an educator, I am pissed that her teacher escalated the situation for such a minor offense. I have had students defiantly refuse to turn over their cells and I have never treated it as a moment to break their spirit. Further, I operate from the belief that my students are carrying a weight that I cannot imagine. Their lives are far different from mine and I must respect that that weight changes from day to day and their stressors impact their experiences/interactions. I look for the best way to deal with them by treating them as humans and not robots or my subjects. Her teacher and administration failed this young lady even before they allowed her to be whipped around like a rag doll.

[orriskitten]

I hate all of this. I feel so helpless. I so desperately want to help fix this, but I know it's not as easy as that. Heartbreaking.

[mrsukyankee]

I just don't get how anyone could ever see this as being okay. Every time I read the idiotic comments under articles about violence against black children, I want to weep for humanity.