Letters: We need to expose children to other views

The Spring Valley event has brought us race, excessive force, mental heath, disrespect, violence and school wrapped up in one disturbing package. We blame the child for being disrespectful, we blame the officer for using excessive force, we blame the school for not having control, we blame the parents for not teaching.

My son attends a Richland 2 school, and not one word of this situation has been mentioned to students. We say do not bully because someone is different, but when our kids ask how they are different, we say we can’t discuss that (for fear of backlash). Children need to talk about current events in school, they need to understand that other opinions are OK and that we can still play kickball together.

We say teach your kids right, but my right isn’t the only right. I want my child to hear other opinions, from other families, from other ethnic backgrounds. How else do you build tolerance, character, success? Children need to hear more than just the views of their parents, their social-media friends, their church, as most of these circles are like minded, giving them no chance to see, understand, agree, disagree and work together.

This story was originally published November 5, 2015 at 2:49 PM with the headline "Letters: We need to expose children to other views."