Art by Juliana Hamel

On the Monday following the Las Vegas shooting, I came to school in search of reassurance that things would be okay, but when the day passed and only a few teachers mentioned what had happened, I felt let down and confused.

I wondered–why wouldn’t teachers discuss such a significant event with their students?

In the wake of tragedies such as the Las Vegas shooting, the numerous natural disasters, and the recent attacks in New York City and Texas, students like myself would appreciate it if teachers would bring up the news and spark a classroom discussion.

Why wouldn’t teachers want to discuss current events? After all, these are the very events students will be learning about in the future.

There must be some type of policy forbidding teachers from bringing up current events in the classroom, then, right?

Think again.

Principal Mr. Parent said there isn’t a directive or policy that says teachers can’t talk about what’s going on in the country and the world.

The only policy remotely close to “censorship” is regarding topics such as religion or politics, in which case teachers aren’t supposed to impose their personal beliefs onto students, and that’s not imposed by the school district. It’s federal law.

“What we guard against, for lack of a better word,” Parent said, “is getting into political affiliations or religious affiliations. That’s not a teacher’s job, to promote their belief system. It’s our job to educate students on the political process, on candidates, without taking a slant or side, same with religion.”

Both Parent and history teacher Mrs. Wakelin agree with students. They say they want to encourage teachers to get talking.

“We can’t pretend that this stuff isn’t happening,” Wakelin said. “And especially just right now. I mean, there are a lot of different events that have happened recently, whether you’re talking about the Las Vegas shooting, if you’re talking about all the natural disasters that have happened, or if you want to talk about the rhetoric around North Korea.”

English teacher Mrs. Giguere is willing to bring up these topics as well.

“I think it is important to make connections between literature and current events,” Giguere said, “not only to help students become informed citizens, but also to help them make connections to the past.”

These teachers are incorporating current events into their classrooms, but if other teachers say they’re so willing to talk with students, why aren’t they doing it? Maybe it’s because teachers are worried it will cause a heated debate amongst students. Maybe they are afraid that they don’t know the facts and don’t want to give out false information. Parent said that it could be the fact that some students want to have an average day among the chaos.

“Sometimes, people just want normalcy,” Parent said. “So when we’ve had a crisis or a challenge in our community, there is a thought out there that some of our students just need a routine or normalcy and not to focus so much about it or to talk about it.”

Wakelin says that some teachers feel pressed for time, and don’t want to waste valuable teaching time talking about the latest news. Some educators may even be afraid of bringing it up.

“Some people are nervous about what kind of opinions may go out there,” Wakelin said. “Maybe they feel like they don’t know the information well enough, so they don’t know how they would handle misinformation or fake news, things like that.”

Giguere expressed her own concerns for acknowledging the news during her class.

“If a student brought up the event, I would absolutely address it and be willing to have a class discussion,” Giguere said. “However, to bring it up on my own might not be the path I take, not knowing my students’ personal connections to the event.”

Teachers, we understand that you have a curriculum to teach and a schedule to follow, but taking just a minute or two to discuss current events can help provide a sense of reassurance to us as students. It doesn’t have to be a long conversation, but acknowledging there are important things going on in the world is more comforting than pushing it to the side.