Nov. 13 2015 was a devastating  day in the world. Hundreds of people died, not only in the Paris attacks, but in Baghdad, Beruit, Japan and Mexico.

The most talked about attack of that day was the attacks in Paris, France that left close to 200 people dead and many more emotionally scarred for a lifetime.

Almost immediately after the attacks happened, support for the people of France was shown from all across the world from world leaders sending their regards, to random people on twitter tweeting the hashtag #pray4paris. Even West Point Universities football team took the field with both a French and American Flag to show that they stand with the people of France.

Following the attacks, many people including myself tend to feel a little on edge wondering why people would ever be so cruel to kill almost 200 innocent people that are just trying to enjoy their Friday night.

One Westside teacher reached out to the administration after they were approached by concerned students and asked if it would be ok to send out a statement to the student body.

“I am writing this message to you to encourage you to learn.  Some students want to do something to show their support for what is currently happening in far too many places in the world.  If you want to show support, be a student of the world.  Ignorance and fear are two basic elements that allow violence and hate to grow.  If you want to play a role in eliminating this kind of hatred from our world, take advantage of your opportunities to learn. Appreciate all of the different ways people live.  Through doing this, you eliminate ignorance from your life and develop an understanding of someone who might be very different from you.  You reduce fear.  You play an important role in stomping out hate and showing support of other people through compassion.  This is better than any donation you could give because it is a lasting contribution to our society and it will change you as a person.” 

The administration decided they could not let the teacher send out the message and responded to this letter saying “This [letter] could bring up reactions to this horrific situation or something else in a students life that we are not able to support.”

Frankly that is not a valid reason to not support what happened in Paris. How is a teacher simply writing a message to students explaining that by being a student of the world you can help eliminate hatred, harmful to the mental stability of students at Westside. How is a letter like that going to bring up more of a reaction than what is broadcasted all over the news?

Simply not supporting something is fine, but not supporting a tragedy in fear that it will offend other people doesn’t make sense. Someone will always be offended by something and the school can’t protect students from whats going on in the world around them when it is posted on every news platform.