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When my son’s school was locked down, I wondered: Is there anything positive left for our kids? | Opinion

With social media, COVID-19, bullying, politics, shooting, drugs, and more, how do parents and educators ensure our kids aren't feeling lost and left behind?

Dr. Vishal Shah and his son, Anand. Last week, Anand's school was locked down, scaring his father and prompting introspection.
Dr. Vishal Shah and his son, Anand. Last week, Anand's school was locked down, scaring his father and prompting introspection.Read moreALEJANDRO A. ALVAREZ / Staff Photographer

It was another Friday morning for me — Zoom calls and administrative tasks filling the calendar. After a few morning meetings, I settled down to go through my inbox. I had barely drafted a few emails when a text came from my son.

He does not even keep his phone with him during school hours, and so just seeing a text from him made my hair stand up.

“We are in a lockdown.”

Reading the text triggered all the responses one would imagine from a parent. I was terrified.

The second text said, “I am OK.” A minor rush of relief.

By this time, the school had started to send out updates and it was evident this was no drill. More fear.

It took one hour to drive from my office to his school — and that hour felt like driving for a whole day. The school, as expected, was in total lockdown, with all entrances and the parking lot closed. I joined other parents on a road near the school. At that moment, all of us just wanted to see our children safe. Seventy minutes of standing around. Seventy minutes of anxiety and nervousness. We filled the time with discussions of how the world has become so negative, particularly for our children: social media, COVID-19, bullying, politics, shooting, drugs. The topics changed every few minutes, but the theme remained the same: There’s so little that’s positive in the world for our kids these days.

Then came the news of what was happening inside the school. Threatening words were found written in one of the school bathrooms. When I read the threat — which I won’t repeat here — it felt as if the whole world dissolved around me. At that moment, I felt there was no hope for tomorrow.

I’m not alone.

With more than 3,000 violent threats made every year in schools across America, thousands of parents experience this fear and hopelessness. Most of these threats include shooting and bomb threats. The graphic images we all have witnessed of the violence inside school buildings flash through your mind when your child is in a school that’s been locked down.

Now that some time has passed, I have gratitude to all the law enforcement and school personnel, because everyone from my son’s school is safe. That is one positive takeaway. But this occurrence reminds me that we are living in a fractured moment in this country.

Our society is the most divided it has ever been in recent human history. The America of today is divided over race, ethnicity, gender, social issues, economic reach, and immigration status. The political and the media divisions among us further deepen our differences, to the level that we cannot even unite on the ways to prevent the death of our fellow Americans. The negativity and differences amplifying through every platform affect our children.

As an educator myself, I’ve been thinking a lot about how, more than ever, all teachers and school administrators need to make efforts to ensure we connect with students who may seem to have viewpoints that do not match ours, or whose beliefs may require us to go more than an extra mile to reach them. All educators must nurture a classroom environment where students feel free to have an open conversation and express their true thoughts. Buildings where learning happens should be free of judgment, particularly from those who impart knowledge. Perhaps then, students like the one who threatened my son’s school will feel as if they have someone they can talk to, instead of causing this harm. Perhaps then there could be a glimmer of positivity.

The United Nations pledged a few years back to “Endeavor to reach the furthest behind first.” This pledge could not be more relevant than now.

Perhaps, somewhere through their journey, the student who wrote the threat on the bathroom wall felt left behind. Perhaps it is up to all of us to reach them.

Vishal Shah is dean of the division of math, science, and health careers at Community College of Philadelphia.