Our children should be protected

I want to share a story that I am hoping to raise awareness about. On September 13 my children’s school, Sequoia Pathways Academy here in Maricopa, had a ceremony named “A Day to Remember, September 11.” I was informed this event was to honor rescue workers, police and fire. Previously on September 8, my twin boys who are six and are in first grade, came home from school and began speaking to my husband and I about twin buildings being destroyed by our enemies. They were very concerned for their safety, and my husband and I became alarmed because we do not let our children watch the news. We have not shared the event of September 11 with them as we felt it wasn’t relevant to them at this time because they are so young. My husband and I had a meeting with the principal and the assistant superintendent of the school. We asked why this topic is being discussed in the classroom, and we told them we felt that our children were too young to be exposed to the details of terrorist attacks. We questioned the purpose of exposing groups of 5- and 6-year-olds to such details in the classroom. We were told that they would handle the situation with the teachers and that they would screen the speakers of the ceremony and contact us if there were to be any graphic details that were inappropriate for our children. They reassured us it would be safe for our boys and that it really was about rescue workers. My boys love police cars and fire trucks so I trusted what they said and decided to attend the event because parents were invited.

To my shock, the mayor gave a speech about many of the events that occurred on September 11. It was not extreme in its graphic detail but enough to make me concerned. The most upsetting was a poem read by a seventh grader that stated people jumping from buildings while family watched. I was quite disturbed that we were reassured by the administration of the school this would be safe event for our children and others, but it certainly was not. I lost my trust in the integrity of the school.

In my opinion they failed to allow us to protect our children and put them in a situation that exposed them to graphic details that they were not prepared to hear. The question that I want to raise in our community surrounding the September 11 events is this: What is the purpose of exposing young listeners to the horrible graphic images? At the age of five or six, what would be the relevance in their life at this point to hear those things. Many parents such as myself work hard to preserve the innocence of our young children. I respect the mayor for attending the event and our local police and fire departments for hosting this ceremony. It just disturbs me that no one has taken into consideration these young minds. I am an advocate for children, and it saddens me that because of social conditioning our society thinks it’s okay to speak about adult topics in front of little kids. I heard a teacher say, “Oh well, this is just the world we live in,” and the assistant superintendent told me “we can’t protect our kids from everything”. I said to him no, but there are things we can protect them from and we can do something about those things. I insist on the highest of integrity from the leaders in our community. Please help me raise the awareness of this issue in our community, for the sake of protecting the innocence of young children.
 
Amanda Klein is a Rancho El Dorado resident.

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