The Backpack Drop Zone: One Sixth-Grade Truth That Exposed Our Quiet Crisis

and stared at it like it was poisonous.

Tommy’s words came back to me.

Everything’s always ‘complicated’ when it’s not happening to you.

By the time the last bell rang, the principal had called an emergency staff meeting.

We sat in the library under a banner that said READING IS MAGIC.

I wondered what banner we’d hang for empathy.

The principal stood in continue reading …