Welcome to Current Events Conversation, where each week we round up some of our favorite responses to one of our student writing prompts.
After federal agents fatally shot Alex Pretti on Jan. 24 — the second U.S. citizen to be killed by federal agents in Minneapolis amid protests against President Trump’s ramped-up immigration enforcement effort — we asked teenagers to share what they were thinking and feeling about where America is heading.
Nearly 300 students from across the country weighed in. They shared their distress over the violence, their thoughts about what the United States stands for, and their fears for the future of the country. While some expressed deep despair, others found hope in their generation and the belief that “change is possible.”
Thank you to all the students who joined the conversation this week, including those from Abington Friends School in Jenkintown, Pa.; DSST: Montview High School in Denver; and Maury High School in Norfolk, Va.
Please note: Comments have been edited and condensed.
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Students expressed shock, anger, fear and confusion over the loss of life and the administration’s response.
As a young person living in the U.S. I feel repulsed and immensely saddened. Repulsed at the fact that these federal agents so easily killed a fellow human being and saddened because somebody lost their life due to something so preventable.
At this moment right now, I am feeling extremely sickened and outraged with the unrightful actions going on in the United States. The killings in Minnesota, without any thought of negotiation or any way of compromise without harm, is unjust.
Growing up, it’s always felt like America has been this great place. I’ve often felt thankful about being able to call this country my home. If you told me 10 years ago, or even 2 years ago, that I would read about federal officers shooting protesters, I would tell you that you were talking about a different country. I would tell you that you were talking about a movie.
What is happening in Minneapolis is sad and concerning but also really confusing. I have seen some videos online of protests and police, but I don’t really know all the details. It just seems like people are really angry right now and everyone is divided. These events make America feel tense and unstable. People argue about what really happened and it feels like nobody agrees on anything.
— Jabril, Frontier STEM High School
I am deeply troubled by the way the government is reacting to these events, especially when they contradict moments that were filmed. It feels very much like they are trying to gaslight us, the American people, and that fills me with worry for the future.
I feel as though no one understands how scary it is to have all your childhood conceptions of a nation full of “life, liberty and the Pursuit of happiness” shattered with every breaking new story about someone who looked like me being killed, deported, or dehumanized.
— Alyssa, Montclair High School, CA
I feel really beat down and numb. It’s hard for me to even find the words. People are being dehumanized and rounded up like farm animals, and when humans finally react the way they are supposed to, with empathy and outrage and protestation and fear, to protect their community and their loved ones, they are dragged to the ground and shot. Our country is being run by people who publicly laugh at and mock the pain they are inflicting upon their citizens. The supporters of the people who run our country are believing the most blatant and insulting lies and abandoning what they believe in. But I have more faith now in my country than I’ve had in a while, seeing communities come together, not letting anything that’s going on beat them down or keep them silent, more and more committing to action each day.
— MS, PA
Many reflected on what America stands for, and whether it is living up to its values of “liberty and justice for all.”
Protesting is supposed to be a protected right, not something that puts your life at risk. When videos come out and officials seem more focused on defending themselves than acknowledging the harm done, it makes it hard to believe anyone will be held responsible. What really bothers me is how quickly the people who were killed were labeled as threats. Calling citizens “domestic terrorists” feels like a way to shut down questions and criticism instead of honestly dealing with what happened. It sends the message that people who protest or try to help others can be treated as enemies rather than as people with rights. Right now, it feels like America is at a turning point. We grow up learning that this country stands for freedom, justice, and speaking out. Moments like this make me wonder if those values actually apply to everyone.
I feel conflicted seeing what’s going down in America right now, because protests that are meant to hold the government accountable to their responsibility to the people are prompting violence that is becoming increasingly normalized. Trust is breaking. When the government responds to unrest with violence and chaos, it causes us, the American people, to wonder whose lives are protected and whose are “expendable,” which isn’t something that should even be a question. As a young woman, it’s scary to enter a world where violence overshadows solutions, and “officials” answer with bullets.
I don’t hate the idea of ICE and deporting criminals in our country, but the way they have been handling things is just not good at all. For example, deporting people without due process and even dehumanizing people calling them “illegal aliens,” that just isn’t what ICE was made for.
I think that it is important for our country to maintain its rule of law, which is why, in my opinion, the federal agents are a necessary measure for our country to maintain order among protesters. From my point of view, it appears that the federal agents are simply following their duties to uphold immigration laws, which I think is vital for our country. This brings me to a point of contention that has been an internal debate of mine: although I think we need our personal freedoms, I think that we also need the government’s backing to ensure that our civil unrest does not bring anarchy into our lives.
This country is not a country of a set people, but of countless different people and cultures who agree that all people are “endowed … with certain inalienable rights.” It is a country almost entirely of immigrants and their descendants, by immigrants and their descendants, and for immigrants and their descendants. For this reason immigrants must be given rights and treated according to their dignity so they too may more fully become members of this society. Pushing out and discriminating against immigrants is contrary to the American values of freedom and opportunity for all.
— E., Maury High School – Norfolk VA
In school, I remember watching the Schoolhouse Rock video “The Great American Melting Pot.” In class we discussed how America was a place for everyone and how immigrants from all parts of the world are welcome.
Today, I rewatched the video, and to my surprise, the only immigrants it explicitly mentioned about joining the melting pot were “white immigrants.” Although I never saw someone like me join the melting pot, between the video and my class discussion, I believed that America could be a place where people of color could thrive and be accepted.
When I read about the terrors that are going on in the world, I am absolutely dumbfounded at how easily I fell into the propaganda. I was told that I, an African American teenage girl, could be treated with the same respect as others. I believed the lies that were told to me while the truth was so explicitly displayed and demonstrated through loud actions.
We were taught that “All men are created equal,” but that’s not the America that’s in the headlines but is conveniently the America being celebrated for its 250 years of existence. The violence and discrimination that have been faced by thousands, named and unnamed, seems unconstitutional and the opposite of what America has stood for.
Has America strayed too far away from its supposed morals, or were they only put in place as a facade to lure others to just exploit them?
Students from immigrant communities shared their experiences living in a time of heightened immigration enforcement.
All of these things happening replay in my mind as I continue with my daily life. Taking in everything that has been taking place due to President Trump’s immigration enforcement and ICE in general, it honestly has brought a lot of anxiety and unease. I fear for my community. I fear for my parents. As a daughter of two undocumented parents, it’s extremely difficult to feel at ease when I know they can be taken away from me, just because ICE has been given power, too much power. I fear for any hard working immigrants, working hard for their daily bread, and for teenagers like me who have immigrant relatives and live with constant anxiety that they can be taken by ICE. It’s hard to push on and pretend like everything is “normal.” Considering everything, it’s overwhelming and unfair. I feel powerless.
As a young Afro-Latina and Caribbean girl, I constantly wonder if the fact of being born in America matters to Trump or ICE at all. They are constantly deporting people for just having different cultures, accents and values.
When I talk about my job or where I live, I notice I don’t always say “Let’s go” anymore. Instead of that, now I say “What if they’re there?”
As a citizen that grew up in Senegal, I thought America was the place of freedom, safety, and opportunity. Don’t get me wrong, we have a lot of opportunities and maybe freedom, but what do you mean I can get shot by a random ICE agent because he thinks I’m an “illegal alien”? What do you mean kids born here end up in foster homes because their parents “don’t belong here”? From far away, America looked so great, but now that I live here that greatness has turned into a broken dream.
— Aida, City Neighbors High School, Baltimore
Many students expressed fear about where America is heading, drawing parallels to history and literature.
As a Latino, I adamantly feel, as it pertains to the context surrounding us, that Latinos, in particular, should be paying close attention to the ICE shootings as they signal a direction this country is very well drifting toward — one of which state power is normalized, accountability is blurred, and certain communities are treated as inherently suspect and lesser than.
One must not scour history in Latin America, to see how it teaches us how quickly this slide can happen. For example, in Chile and Argentina, authoritarian regimes justified repression as “security,” using secret police and military force to silence, detain, and disappear people long before the broader public fully grasped what was happening. Likewise, under Trujillo in the Dominican Republic, violence by the state became routine, selective, and eventually invisible to those not directly targeted.
The lesson is not that the United States is already there, but that complacency is dangerous. When shootings by federal agents are met with shrugs or more so partisan deflection, a specific precedent is set. Latinos understand, often through family memory, that rights erode first at the margins.
Everything in Minneapolis has been very eye opening for me in how drastic and severe the conditions in America are right now. It has made me think a lot on certain literature that is being banned across the country as well, because I’m seeing so much similarity between fiction and reality. It’s scary to see fiction and reality morphing together into a dystopia that I didn’t imagine would happen.
This also reminds me of the “Diary of Anne Frank,” because she was hiding in an attic, terrified to come out because of her religion which is similar to how people are now scared to go out to school and whatnot because of ICE. It’s horrifying to see these similarities, especially since this country is supposed to be a representation of freedom and liberty.
While I have not been specifically talking about these protests in my English class, I have talked about a book called “Ragtime” by E.L. Doctorow which contains parallel circumstances. This book was about inequality between social classes, struggles with immigration, and injustice amidst inappropriate use of power. The scariest similarity is that the book contains a character who dies by government officials after attempting to seek justice for another man, which is a very similar narrative to Alex Pretti’s death ….
“Ragtime” was written to expose inequality, social injustice, and struggles with immigration — and now modern-day society seems to be creeping toward the very horrors these authors warned us about. It is important to utilize novels with similar themes to current events as well as literary analysis skills to come to a conclusion on our own, ignoring the smoke and mirrors the government attempts to employ.
I’ve been paying attention to the crisis in Minneapolis, but I think I should’ve been paying more attention to the issue as a whole. The situation makes me fear that we have finally fallen off the edge of the cliff that was protecting us from a deep, dark period of democratic backsliding. This, along with the arrest of journalists, doesn’t make me think that democracy is under pressure, but that it’s falling apart in real time. The videos of ICE agents killing Good and Pretti are horrifying enough, and the Trump administration’s response, whether it be their hypocrisy, lies, or deception, makes it much worse. The quote “The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears” from George Orwell’s “1984” has been thrown around a lot, which I think is a perfect description of the administration’s response.
Finally, they shared where they are finding hope and comfort in these tumultuous times.
America has gone through many horrible decisions and issues, such as slavery, but over time we have found ways to move past it and right the wrongs of the past. I fear that the protests will stop, the leaders will stop trying, and other countries will stop trying to bring a stop to all of this violence. If we, the people of the United States of America, start to give up and submit to this violence, there is no telling how far Trump’s actions will go since it seems he has loopholes around the rules set to avoid full control. The only thing that gives me hope is the thousands of people around the world protesting for the end of this violence and the belief that we can restore this country to its former state of a melting pot for everyone.
Despite all of these tragedies, I am proud of our youth. Recently schools in my district have been coming together and planning peaceful walkouts as protests. Standing up for our communities and our beliefs is still very important.
— Isabella, Montclair High School
Seeing young people question authority and speak up makes me believe that change is still possible through empathy and accountability.
Today in my English class, we read this article aloud and our teacher gave us space for us to process these tragic events and room to talk about it. Going to a Quaker school, we often use silence to process what has been said. During our discussion, I noticed a lot of silence, mostly because everyone was processing the violence that they witnessed on the news or have seen recently.
While my peers all had different viewpoints they were speaking from, there is one thing their sentiments had in common: fear. Innocent lives are being threatened for existing in a country that is supposed to be accepting of everyone, a country that many come to for opportunities for a better life. The hatred, apathy, and violence is affecting our youth and young adults, and it’s horrifying.
As deep as this conversation was, I am glad that I have a community that I can lean on for support. From my family, friends, and in the classroom, I am grateful for these conversations because it helps myself and others feel less alone, gives me the ability to process the information and learn new perspectives from others.
— Nia, Abington Friends School
The article made me think about how moments of violence don’t just affect the people directly involved — they shape how entire communities feel about the future of the country. Reading the students’ reactions, I was struck by how many of them expressed a mix of fear, exhaustion, and determination. It shows that young people are paying attention, even when the news feels overwhelming.
For me, the most powerful part was seeing how honest the students were about their emotions. They weren’t trying to sound political or impress anyone; they were just trying to make sense of events that feel bigger than them. I think a lot of people, not just teenagers, can relate to that feeling of uncertainty — wondering whether things are getting better or worse, and what role they’re supposed to play in all of it.
At the same time, there was a thread of hope running through their responses. Even when they were frustrated or scared, many still believed that change is possible. That mix of realism and hope feels like a reflection of America right now: a country struggling with violence and division, but also full of people who still want to build something better.
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The post What Teenagers Are Saying About the Killings in Minneapolis appeared first on New York Times.
