Quincey Reese, Managing Editor
History teacher John Carlisle recently asked his students to write letters to AP World History and AP U.S. History students at Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., to receive on their first day back since the school shooting that killed 17 people there on Feb. 14.
1. How were you informed of the opportunity for your students to write these letters?
I am part of a big AP World teacher Facebook page, and one of the teachers from Parkland posted that when her students came for the first day back, she wanted something unique to come back to and some letters to know that other people are thinking about them. She just wanted to make their experience coming back from that horrific event a little bit better. She posted this on that page and it kind of went viral, larger than just among that Facebook page. There were some famous professors that retweeted it, and some celebrities as well, so they kind of got bombarded.
2. What did they ask you to do?
It was an AP World teacher, so she wanted letters from AP World students to hers. She later posted that the AP U.S. teacher from that school wanted students to send her classes letters as well. Technically, they could have been from anybody, but it was kind of neat to see it go from peer to peer.
3. Why did you decide to extend this opportunity to your students?
I just thought it could be anybody. Any student could have been at Parkland. It could happen in Pittsburgh, it could happen in our town. It’s something you don’t want to think about, but it’s reality now. If something horrific was to happen here, I would hope that other teachers and other students would be able to reach out and help out my own students. That teacher could have been myself. You hope for the best and hope that it never happens, but if it does then it would be comforting to know that somebody would have our backs.
4. How many of your students participated in this?
I opened it up to all of my AP World students. I would say that probably about 40 students did it among those two classes. In my AP U.S. class, I would say around 20 students did it. Overall, right around 60 letters were sent to Parkland, Florida.
5. Did any of your students include anything beyond just the letters?
I had a few students that wrote letters, but also included really cool pictures that lighten them up a little bit. I didn’t read the letters. I told students before that I didn’t want to read them and that it is their own personal letters to the students, but I did see pictures drawn on there. A few students told me that they included their Instagrams and Snapchats and other social medias in case they wanted to actually contact them, which I thought was kind of cool. It just sent the message that even though I don’t know you and you don’t know me, if you want to talk to get your mind off of something, I am here for you. I thought that was really cool and really powerful.
6. When will the students receive the letters?
They have already received them. I know they already got delivered. The teacher right now has been looking at letters from all over the world. She is on to the ones from D.C. right now, so I don’t even think the students have had the opportunity to read them yet. There will probably never be a formal “thank you” for sending the letters, because there are so many of them that it would be hard to send an individual “thank you,” but I’m sure she will send a big group “thank you” to everyone that partook in it. She actually said later to stop sending so much mail if possible and that if everyone could condense their mail into one envelope that would be better, because that school is getting so much mail from around the country and the world.
7. What do you think the students will think of the letters? Why do you think this is a meaningful thing to do?
I just think it opened the eyes of our students here. Sometimes students hear about things on the news, but they don’t understand exactly what happened. It gave them a chance to reach out to other students and show that we’re in this together. I just thought that was very powerful. Some of our students really took it to heart and sent a very nice long, lengthy letter to these students who I can’t even begin to imagine what they’re going through. If I could sum it up in one sentence, these letters were to show them that there are more good people than bad in this world. It’s not about hearing back from them. It’s just that intrinsic value that we were able to do something about it.
The teacher who reached out to Carlisle, Diane Wolk-Rogers, has also been working with her students and students across the country to fight for the student revolution on gun control. Her work has gone viral, placing her on live news platforms such as CNN. Carlisle explained that she went on TV to question the NRA and a Senator from Florida about gun control.