This weekend took me back to December 2015, when my former student, Quintonio LeGrier, was killed on his front porch by a Chicago Police Officer who stated he reacted out of fear.
I’ve prayed at the bedsides of Black students injured by gun violence.
Frustration because this isn’t the first, second, or third-time Black life has been taken without cause.
And even more, fear because the West Side of Chicago, home to so many black and brown families, became an economic desert and never recovered after the 1968 riots which erupted in response to the assassination of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.
As an educator, I’ve seen our public education system fail at effectively ensuring that students not only learn core content at equitably rigorous levels, but also fail at helping students learn about the realities of race, class, privilege, and collective responsibility.
