in all my work with kids—specializing in social-emotional learning—I’ve had multiple encounters with weapons being brought in by students. a 10 y/o brought in razor blades. an 8 y/o brought in a knife. a 14 y/o brought in a knife that he had on his person. NO POLICE involved.

not only did no staff find it necessary to call the police, their response to children with prohibited items was “go to Miss Rachel’s office immediately”. and every single one of them did (if not a little begrudgingly) because they trusted the adults around them.

but perhaps most relevant to today’s conversation is that people—ESPECIALLY kids—usually carry items like knives because they feel it necessary to be able to protect themselves...which speaks to much bigger, scarier problems that affect them on a daily basis

there was a NYT piece a while ago in which the author asked various men—most of whom were young and Black—why they chose to buy, sell, carry, etc. guns without permits or licenses, and their responses were always some version of “because I need to protect myself from danger”

every time a child came to me because they had something they shouldn’t have had at school, they almost always WANTED to tell somebody. they usually told a peer who then went to an adult. it wasn’t about the fact they had a knife, it was about WHY.

(in case it wasn’t already obvious, I don’t have formal training self-defense, or whatever police learn. but I KNOW I have more de-escalation training than the vast majority of police do)