From kindergarten onward, they knew the drill. They did as they were told. At the signal - - instantly silent. Brains scrambled with fear, bodies submitting to the well-practiced ritual.
- Lights off
- Doors locked
- Windows covered
- Hiding places secured
- Complete silence
None of these things brought about the magic that they desperately craved. If only I am good, they thought, I will be safe. There will be no more shootings. I won’t have nightmares. Mommy won’t cry when she watches the news.
In school they learned that hurting people was wrong and that when a bigger person targets a smaller one it is called bullying. Stronger forces oppressing weaker ones was to be censured, not admired. Standing up to protect others is good.
But what they learned most of all were the incantations pronounced by a series of adults from year to year:
You may begin. Turn the page. Put your pencil down. Put your head on your desk. This is a lockdown.
They did as they were told. They never stopped being afraid. Or maybe they just became numb.
In the Spring of 2024 they did what ‘grown-up’ children are supposed to do. They remembered the lessons of childhood.
Hurting people is wrong. When a bigger person targets a smaller one it is called bullying. Stronger forces dominating weaker ones are to be censured, not admired. Standing up to protect others is good.
In colleges across the country those very same children are picking up their heads, putting down their pencils and standing up for something they believe in.
But - - they are not doing as they were told.
For this their own schools have turned against them. Places of learning have opened their doors to militarized police units in order to suppress them. They have been beaten and arrested along with professors who came to bear witness. These young people have spent all of their lives training to avoid school shootings because adults - - who had the power to do so - - would not enact laws to protect them. Into this moment college administrators have invited the big guns.
It turns out that, of all the lessons they learned in school, only one applies: you must do as you are told. You must do as you’re told even though you know 1. it doesn’t make you safer and 2. it will not make the world a better place.
Those truths, now so evident, are irrelevant. You must do as you are told because, if you do not, all of the most obscene and violent punishments will be rained down upon you and it will be deemed to be all your fault.
Maybe these children, who are children no longer, once believed this was a simple rule and easy to obey. Now they have learned the secret behind the rule: when stronger forces can easily oppress weaker ones, they can just as easily lie and say you broke the rule even when you did not.
Who will oppose* them? The punishment will be the same.
When you punish students for their love & compassion you teach them how powerful compassion truly is. You admit to them that you govern on a premise that cannot withstand love. Love prevails. We're witnessing the soul growth of a generation. They deserve our care & respect.
- - Alexis Pauline Gumbs, American writer, independent scholar, poet, activist and educator
*Black Americans know this and have known this through multiple generations.
”If the police will do it to them, they will do it to you.” - - DeRay McKesson, American Civil Rights Advocate
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