Accountability for One Isn’t Justice for All

A young Black child sits on a Black man’s shoulders. He is wearing sunglasses and a face mask and holding a sign with orange paint handprints on it and the phrase “Respect my life”. Behind him is a sign that says “Skin color shouldn’t be a death sentence”

The guilty verdict delivered Tuesday against Derek Chauvin represents accountability in a single case, but not justice for all.

This verdict came only after a Black father was murdered in broad daylight, children witnessed the scene, and a long and bloody history of racist violence and racist systems in this country.

The trauma inflicted by incidents like the murder of George Floyd extends well beyond the immediate witnesses to the event. Children, especially Black and Latinx children, are not immune to the stories of police brutality in the news. Racial tensions and violence compound the massive trauma children are already experiencing due to the COVID-19 pandemic. This compounded trauma creates a heavy burden that does not go away when children log on to virtual school or walk through their school doors.

The way school districts organize the post-COVID return to school must take the traumatic experiences of the past year into account. Effective, intensive family engagement is not one more box to check as school reopens, it is an absolute precondition to a successful and equitable return to school for millions of children. The jury in Minneapolis established legal accountability for the murder of George Floyd, but we have only begun to address the impact of that tragedy—and many others like it—on an entire generation of children and youth.