By Cyra Rahman, TIWP Student

“This morning a swastika was found on campus.” The loudspeaker announces, shocking me as I try to solve my math problems. The teacher looks shocked. The chatting and laughs come to a sudden halt. Who on Earth would paint a swastika on campus, and why? I know what it symbolizes, and so does 90% of the other kids in the room. We all point our gazes at the speaker, problems unsolved, waiting for it to continue. “This behavior is unacceptable at our school. This behavior will not be tolerated.” the speaker, our principal, says. “Everyone at this school deserves to feel welcome, and this is truly horrible. If you have any information about who did it, please come to the office during a break or use our reporting system. This is not acceptable, and we will not stand for this,” the loudspeaker finishes.

That was two weeks ago on a Monday. Again today, November 17, the loudspeaker announces that in our third period, we will have a presentation. I go through the class worried and upset. Just yesterday, waiting in line to get hot lunch, boys behind me were talking about becoming Nazis, and laughing like it was a joke. I was so angry at them. Did they think things like antisemitism and the Holocaust, where many innocent Jewish people died, was a joke? I could have punched them. The kids in front of me, one of them from my grade school, just told them to be quiet, to shut up. That wouldn’t stop them.

I have a close friend who is Jewish, and they must have felt horrible during the presentation. The teacher talked about how it is a horrible symbol, and how she hopes the kid was just trying to be funny and didn’t understand how awful it really is. I feel uncomfortable, and shift in my seat. I want to leave. But I know that whoever did this is listening to this lesson, and is feeling bad for doing such a terrible thing. I take a small relief in that. The teacher acknowledges that no, this presentation will not end antisemitism and racism and all that, and that we shouldn’t expect full closure, we might never know who did that. She’s right. One presentation is not going to change the world. And now, the kid was probably embarrassed while the presentation played, but is maybe less likely to do it again, to risk getting suspended, after learning about what it means. I hope, for everyone’s sake, that the kid was just being dumb, and didn’t understand the harm they can cause. Everyone deserves to be safe.