There are Zero Grown Ups in Burlington, MA.

Daisy told you about the kickass middle schoolers in Burlington, Massachusetts who organized a pro-America protest against their school’s Pride festivities. Instead of wearing rainbow clothes, they wore red, white, and blue. They chanted that their pronouns are “USA” (hilarious).

They also reportedly tore down decorations and ripped off the pride stickers being worn by some of their peers, which is not ideal behavior. But I’ll get back to that in a second. What’s abundantly clear is that staff and students at Marshall Simonds Middle School need to have a conversation.

As someone who used to work with middle and high school-aged students, I would personally be THRILLED at the possibilities for discussion, growth, and learning. What better opportunity is there to teach young people– who already are clearly invested in the issues facing their world– the value of protest, its historical legacy, and how to respectfully disagree with your peers?

Of course, it’s 2023 and the world is ridiculous, so this rational moment of critical thought and empathetic consideration hasn’t happened, and likely won’t, if the school and school board’s responses so far are any indication (and, uh, they are).

Before I go through them, I would like to make a few things clear. First of all, the school just straight up forgot to say or do anything in observance of Memorial Day. So if you wondered why there was a particular patriotic bent to the students’ protest, it’s because THE SCHOOL JUST STRAIGHT UP FORGOT TO SAY OR DO ANYTHING IN OBSERVANCE OF MEMORIAL DAY.

Second, as you cast your eyes over the quotes and statements by the adults in Burlington, keep in mind that this was a middle school. Remember when you were a teenager and an older teenager saying, “You’re like, 12” was absolutely EVISCERATING because 12-year-olds are basically babies? 

They are LITERALLY 12. 

Okay. Let’s dive in.

In a letter to the community, the superintendent of Burlington Public Schools references a “rise in anti LGBTQ+ violence across the country” that “has no place in our schools” before describing their “[experience of] intolerance during the school day on Friday.” 

One parent said, “I thought Burlington was a safer place than Texas or Florida. I guess I was wrong.” 

“I was shocked and horrified,” said another parent.

Select Board Member Michael Espejo said, “I was very upset, I’ve lost sleep over it. It kind of shocked me to my core. I didn’t think something like that could happen in Burlington.”

There’s also been significant concern around the behaviors escalating in the future: One parent said, “It would be naïve of us to think that what happened at the middle school won’t escalate to something more tragic in the future.”

But my personal favorite came from a letter from principal Cari Perchase to parents. She described events, “Several groups of students wore red, white, blue, or black, including face paint. . . groups of students were heard chanting ‘U.S.A [sic] are my pronouns,’ and students glared intimidatingly at faculty members showing pride.”

(Have you ever had a 12-year-old glare at you in an attempt to intimidate you? I have. It’s f*cking HILARIOUS.)

The pearl-clutching and catastrophization is UNBELIEVABLE. These GROWN ASS ADULTS are acting like preschoolers who had their block tower knocked over by a classroom bully. And this isn’t to say that serious conversations don’t need to happen– they absolutely do. But “You’re evil and homophobic and should be totally fine with the supplantation of the US flag with the pride one” isn’t what that conversation needs to look like.

Members of the community pointed out that the students didn’t come up with these ideas on their own, and they have a point. Children learn by modeling the behavior of adults around them. And who are the adults around them? Forgive me if I don’t answer that rhetorical question with a montage of videos of grown ass adults screaming, flipping tables, waving machetes, and otherwise melting the ever-loving f*ck down because they had the misfortune of encountering a perspective they didn’t agree with. You’ve seen the footage.

I said before that their behavior in tearing down decorations and snatching their peers’ stickers was inappropriate, because it is. But how are kids supposed to learn that when that exact behavior is galvanized in their society? How are they supposed to have big, important, uncomfortable conversations when the adults around them are characterizing their protest as literal violence? How are they supposed to feel represented when their school glosses over a 150-year-old day to commemorate the people who died for their freedoms but pull out all the stops to host a celebration that is still illegal in parts of the world today? 

No, these middle schoolers didn’t behave impeccably. But they had a grievance, they organized a thematic and appropriate response, and they exercised a freedom that has made an appearance in every hallmark moment in American history the best they knew how. And, I cannot stress this enough, they are LITERALLY 12. 

Considering the absolute lack of grown ups around them, I think they did a great job.