Interview with a fifth grader at my school.
Background: 11 years old, boy, Colombian, fluent in Spanish, lives in Pawtucket.
Q: 1-10, how much do you like school?
A: I like school at about a 5, because sometimes it gets really hard, and I get distracted.
Q: How do you like BVP?
A: I like it. It is the only school I have been to, and it is kind of cool. I like the way that we get bracelets for our PRIDE score, but I also hate getting detentions. HATE IT.
Q: How safe do you feel in school?
A: I feel really safe in school. I know everyone, so I am not scared.
Q: How safe do you feel at home?
A: It is alright. Sometimes in my neighborhood, where I live and my dad works, which is across the street from my bus stop, he gets guns pointed at him. He has had a gun pulled on him more than five times. I have not been with him whenever it has happened though, I'm not crazy. It is my step-dad though, I don't really like him, but I care about him getting killed.
Q: Why do you feel safer at school and not home?
A: They have cameras on stairs here, everyone is like watching us. Which makes me feel like something cannot happen, because all the teachers care about us. I haven't ever seen cameras on stairs before except at like banks and what not.
Cooper,
ReplyDeleteIt is amazing to me that children don't feel safe at home. It's appalling that we can't ensure this child's safety when he goes home. What can we do about this growing problem? I'm glad he knows that his teachers are there for him, and his building is safe.
Cooper, his stepdad had a gun pointed at him five times? This is really troubling and sad the state of our country and how so many guns are around in the wrong hands. How can a child feel safe just knowing this fact and not constantly worrying about their own and their loved ones safety?
ReplyDeleteWhew. This is one articulate kid. I am appalled at the incidents with his stepdad (plus a little inappropriate chuckle that he doesn't like him but doesn't want him to be killed), but also a little weirded out by the surveillance at the school. Compliance, surveillance...it feels kind of creepy to me.
ReplyDelete