Do Better

 

May 25, 2022

"Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.” – Dr. Maya Angelou

On May 24, 2006, my life was turned upside down. I was in prepping myself to be celebrated by my family at San José State University's football stadium to receive my master's in Sociology. I was beginning my journey to be a middle school teacher in the school district serving my hometown…I was still fighting legal problems from an incident I had with law enforcement back in November 2005. But none of that mattered by the afternoon. On May 24, 2006, I learned my wife was pregnant; I was gonna be a father!

As a parent, I've embraced the idea of doing better for my kids. I have also learned just because you do your part as a parent, does not mean it is enough for your kids. For the last couple of years some of my children experienced bullying. For one of my children, the bullying never let up. Our attempts to get the school and school district to resolve the on-going bullying issues were unsuccessful. As a parent, I feel like the educational system I trusted to keep my child safe failed to do so. Rather than addressing the problems with the bullies, there was a lot of blaming my child (the survivor). The benefit of the doubt seemed to be given to bullies, even with clear evidence to suggest otherwise. Rather than investigating how to fix the school/district anti-bullying strategies that failed my child, my wife and I experienced finger-pointing to suggest we did not do enough. The message was made clear for us: The expectation for parents and survivors of bullying is to just accept the lack of accountability, the lack of urgency. I want the school and district to do better because my kid deserves a chance to go to school without being bullied.

May 24th has a new memory for me…Bullying by way of murder. Not even near the end of a school year and our children are not safe at school from domestic terrorism. In the state I call home, 19 children and 2 adults were murdered with less than a week left in the school year. This massacre brought the amount school shootings in the United States to 27 (and we aren't even in June😔)! We keep asking school staff and students to accept school shootings as normal. We keep asking school districts to accept the idea that schools should just focus on the symptoms of school shootings, but not provide them with tools to address the source of the problems. How is it we can make efforts to protect other countries, yet so little is done to keep our schools safe? Other countries have figured it out. Maybe if those who make up policies and provide funding to schools had to work in schools, then things might be different. Maybe they would be motivated to do better!

 I worked in schools. I taught middle school and high school at public schools. And even though I don't teach middle school or high school anymore, I'm still a teacher. I may not teach for high schools, but I do get the privilege to teach dual credit classes for the community college district that employs me. (FYI: Dual credit classes are college courses offered to high school students that allow them to get class credit for high school and college simultaneously.) This past semester I taught all my face-to-face classes at a high school. Unfortunately, there were moments when the school was in lockdown. And in those moments, I wondered if I was going to make it home. I wondered if all the students were going to get the chance to return to their homes. Those thoughts are sobering and scary. This shouldn’t be a reality. We MUST do better!

I’m down to help close the gaps of learning between high school and college. I’m down to use culturally responsive teaching strategies to help my students see the connection of what I teach to their reality. But asking me to take arms in the classroom or treat students as potential enemies?! Not me! I can't do that! There’s not even evidence to support this as an effective means of saving lives. Let’s do better! Justifying why assault rifles can be purchased with ease?! Not me! How long must we remain reactive at the loss of lives?! You want me to pretend other countries are struggling with this school shooting issue at the level it occurs in the United States?! Not me! Not me! Not me! Find someone else! Do better!

Condolences don't bring dead people back to life. Condolences alone do not fix problematic policies. The school shooting at Columbine High School happened in 1999 and yet we are not any closer to solutions for schools to be safe. Too many people who have been elected and are more concerned with their egos, than the lives of their constituents. Too many of us are constituents who do not hold those we elected accountable. Too many of us are constituents who are unwilling to hold ourselves accountable on how our inaction has aided deadly action of others in our schools. Schools' staff and students should not be used as trial-and-error band-aid solutions. School staff deserve better! Our students deserve better! Let’s do better!

 

Frustrated and concerned,
Professor Elgrie J. Hurd, III
- Professor of Psychology and Sociology