Following the Florida high school shooting, Marissa Schimmoeller, an English teacher in Ohio, dreaded having to talk about the idea of an active-shooter situation in her own school. In a Facebook post, she recounted the discussion she had with her students: “My stomach sank. I launched into my pre-planned speech about our plan of action. […]

Among all the letters, one stopped me in my tracks. It started with, “Dear Friend, we wonder if these letters are as hard to read as they are to write.” Those words told me they understood — that I wasn’t just a vessel for their dream, but a human being walking through something deeply hard. […]