What made me watch the news of the school shooting in Minneapolis in the United States last Wednesday was the fact that most of the victims were children and it happened while they were hearing mass inside a church.
Following the news coverage, what struck me further were the interviews of children who survived the shooting and what they said. Children who are victims of a crime are not supposed to be interviewed by journalists but those on field apparently got the permission of the parents. What the children said showed not only their bravery but the uncomfortable truth that society has forced on these children the need to be this brave.
A 13-year-old boy, a student at the Annunciation Catholic School in Minneapolis, standing beside his mother during an interview, reached out to place a hand on her shoulder. He consoled her as she shed tears while they both recalled what transpired. It was a small gesture, but one that turned the parent–child relationship on its head. The child is the one offering strength, the one reassuring the adult. He said he did his best to keep himself and everyone else safe, telling others to hide under the pews, and that he continued to think of the others.
A nine-year-old girl said in another interview that she heard gunshots at the Annunciation Church on Wednesday, where she was attending morning mass on only her third day of school. A CBS television reporter asked her, “A lot of kids might be scared to go to school because of what happened at your school. What do you want to tell them?” She replied, “I’d probably tell them that it’s okay to be afraid a little bit, but it’s actually kind of rare what happened. So, they don’t have to be that worried.”
These are not just touching moments but reflections of how this generation of children is growing up to be resilient, articulate about their emotions, and forced into early empathy. Researchers call them Generation Alpha, those born between 2010 and 2025.
Experts described them as the most digitally native generation, accustomed to expressing themselves in front of cameras and online. They are also the ones raised amid the Covid-19 pandemic, climate disasters, and school shootings, as those in the United States.
Their responses to trauma, such as the boy comforting his mother and the girl speaking to reassure other schoolchildren, are acts of leadership, not just survival. They seem unafraid to articulate feelings and to stand in for adults when adults falter.
While it is tempting to celebrate this as resilience, the question really is why these children need to be this brave at all.
The strength these children showed also reflects the failure of adults, of society, to do what is needed to keep the world safe so children may grow in peace.