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On the surface, Sagan appears to be a disruptive and violent presence in the school system. He assaulted a teacher, he pointed his fingers at fellow students and pretended he was shooting them, and he generally acted out during the school day. However, the realization that Sagan is five years old casts his behavior in an entirely new light. He is not dangerous or threatening. He is small, vulnerable, upset, and in need of comfort, nurturing, and understanding. School teachers and administrators respond to him the way they often do to Black and brown children, by criminalizing his behavior and pegging him as aggressive and problematic. Meanwhile, similar behaviors in white children are viewed as signs of either trouble at home or intelligence and boredom. Oluo identifies these problems as extensions of the systemic racism in America that causes school leaders to see and treat minority children with animosity. This prejudicial behavior leads many minority children to disengage from school. Sagan’s story shows how authority figures’ responses to a five-year-old’s acting out can have a long-term impact on the child’s life.
