“Kill Mexico.” The words were scratched onto the desk of a ten-year-old boy. He’d been born in America, but his parents were immigrants, and the meaning was clear. His classmate wanted him to know that he was no longer welcome.
His teacher found the message when she sent the kids out for recess. He stayed at his desk, looking at down, fighting back tears.
The teacher is a friend of our family. When she shared this experience we were in shock. How does this happen? How do ten-year-olds get so filled with hate that they pass racist death threats to their classmates?
It’s tempting to write this kind of thing off as an anomaly – to believe that it’s the work of one sociopathic kid out of thousands of decent ones. But this wasn’t the only story like it that we’d heard.
