Discounting Student Survivor Voices:
An Offensive Strategy to Obfuscate Truth
Karen Gross, Esq.
@KarenGrossEdu
It is bad enough that we have a school shooting in Broward County, Florida that killed 17 people and have left others fighting for their lives. And we have survivors struggling to assess how to move on with their lives, deal with their grief, memorialize their friends and make sure tragedies of this nature do not recur occur again at American schools.
And these students have spoken up and out loudly and clearly and persuasively about their lived experiences – interviewing and filming as the tragedy occurred and thereafter. And, they have mobilized social media effectively and with power. Look at the twitter sites created.
Now we have a host of people and efforts to discredit the voices of the survivors – challenging them as being scripted or actors or actually the mouthpieces of adults including their parents. Some of us had advocated for adults to listen but we are being drowned out by efforts to silence and discredit the student voices, even as some people are being fired for their offensive, inaccurate statements.
I have a theory as to why there is such a vehement and seemingly organized voice against the students: it is hard to listen to and accept the truth, especially from our young people.
As a political strategy, it seems easier and better to discredit and embarrass the students and suggest they are youthful pawns. It is easier to fight truth with grotesque versions of these young people, as if listeners across the nation will believe the fake news. And we can ramp up tweets and texts that are robotic and filled with anger, perhaps not all of which are American generated. We will conduct a smear campaign. Just ask Gary Hart about that. We are good that this in today’s world.
I want to fight back and I find it at once distasteful and arrogant to assume that our youth have nothing to say. We people not watching as the student shooting occurred and the students saw the opportunity to document tragedy occurring before them? Have you listened to their voices? Have you seen their faces? Have you watched them wrestle with a world gone awry? Did you see them respond to the decision of the Florida House not to consider hearings on curbing weapons of the very sort used in the school shooting? Imagine the Florida legislator whose response to a student suggestion for gun control responded, “We can’t stop all the crazies.”
Here’s what’s crazy: not listening to students, not hearing their voices, demonizing their truths and undermining their messages. Ask: What sort of nation are we? Sure, gun control will not stop all killings but if it stops many, aren’t we better off? And aren’t we better to have thoughtful, articulate, impassioned students express their well- thought out views?
My messages: truth hurts. Truth is hard. Students are speaking the truth with their own voices. We would be well served to listen and learn. And, we need to help them because they are our future.
And, to those conspiring against the students: Put the venom away folks. Put the political strategies for truth-obfuscation away. Put one’s effort to hurt others away. Stop now.
Our children are asking us to grow up and help. Can we do that?
And these students have spoken up and out loudly and clearly and persuasively about their lived experiences – interviewing and filming as the tragedy occurred and thereafter. And, they have mobilized social media effectively and with power. Look at the twitter sites created.
Now we have a host of people and efforts to discredit the voices of the survivors – challenging them as being scripted or actors or actually the mouthpieces of adults including their parents. Some of us had advocated for adults to listen but we are being drowned out by efforts to silence and discredit the student voices, even as some people are being fired for their offensive, inaccurate statements.
I have a theory as to why there is such a vehement and seemingly organized voice against the students: it is hard to listen to and accept the truth, especially from our young people.
As a political strategy, it seems easier and better to discredit and embarrass the students and suggest they are youthful pawns. It is easier to fight truth with grotesque versions of these young people, as if listeners across the nation will believe the fake news. And we can ramp up tweets and texts that are robotic and filled with anger, perhaps not all of which are American generated. We will conduct a smear campaign. Just ask Gary Hart about that. We are good that this in today’s world.
I want to fight back and I find it at once distasteful and arrogant to assume that our youth have nothing to say. We people not watching as the student shooting occurred and the students saw the opportunity to document tragedy occurring before them? Have you listened to their voices? Have you seen their faces? Have you watched them wrestle with a world gone awry? Did you see them respond to the decision of the Florida House not to consider hearings on curbing weapons of the very sort used in the school shooting? Imagine the Florida legislator whose response to a student suggestion for gun control responded, “We can’t stop all the crazies.”
Here’s what’s crazy: not listening to students, not hearing their voices, demonizing their truths and undermining their messages. Ask: What sort of nation are we? Sure, gun control will not stop all killings but if it stops many, aren’t we better off? And aren’t we better to have thoughtful, articulate, impassioned students express their well- thought out views?
My messages: truth hurts. Truth is hard. Students are speaking the truth with their own voices. We would be well served to listen and learn. And, we need to help them because they are our future.
And, to those conspiring against the students: Put the venom away folks. Put the political strategies for truth-obfuscation away. Put one’s effort to hurt others away. Stop now.
Our children are asking us to grow up and help. Can we do that?