Blogboard

Brooklyn teacher Ariel Sacks feels that the controversial acquittal of the NYC police officers who killed Sean Bell (who was unarmed and brought down in barrage of more than 50 bullets) complicates her own message to students:

I have been trying to compel my students, all of whom are black, to participate wholeheartedly in their education through the public system. I want my students to believe that if they continue on in school and go to college, the world holds unlimited opportunities for them. And it does… except that the verdict in Sean Bell’s case reminds us that this same system does not feel obliged to protect black citizens from violence perpetrated by the very people it hires to keep people safe. How can my students not feel betrayed by this decision?