William Jacobson reports on Legal Insurrection that while Providence middle school teacher was at an inquiry alleging that she had permitted some students out of her classroom during a practice lockdown, students wrote threatening notes on her classroom’s whiteboard and tweeted pictures at them.  One of the images showed a student at the board, but Jacobson speculates that others were involved:

This was very unsettling to Bessinger, because someone was in her classroom with her school children assisting them in writing hostile and taunting messages, then photographing it, then tweeting it. Where was the substitute teacher? Where were administrators? Who took the photo and tweeted it? Middle school students don’t typically use Twitter, they use other platforms, though it’s possible one of the students tweeted them out.

The immediate question, of course, is where is the support for basic decorum in the school?  This sort of behavior, if accepted can grow, as each incident sets a new precedent and defines the range of what’s permissible.  The attack is primarily on Bessinger, but it harms the participants, as well, and can refocus on other teachers or staff toward whom the administration, union, and teachers have fonder feelings.  So, where are they on this?

For that matter, where is the local media?  A couple of years ago, the poor condition of Providence schools was the advertisement-selling outrage of the year.  Where is the update on new developments — potentially racially driven attacks on a teacher?

This perspective expands out more broadly.  Where is the institutional support for the concerns that Bessinger and parents across the state have expressed?  Is it really the case that no other teachers, administrators, elected officials, or journalists see problems with the materials (both racial and sexual) being promoted in our schools?  How is it possible that the wall is so smooth against acknowledgement of legitimate concerns, let alone suggestions that changes are in order?

My answer to these questions is that radicals have institutionalize the strategy they pioneered while advocating for same-sex marriage:  Don’t debate.  Just assert that everything is obvious good versus obvious bad.  Ignore opposing views, and marginalize them when they cannot be ignored.  Decades of indoctrination posing as education, plus the tribalism of social media, plus billions of dollars flowing through the non-profit, academic, and media worlds from wealthy progressives and the federal government have built that wall with materials salvaged from the dismantling of our shared institutions.

The solution can only be to rebuild so that alternative views can be expressed and find an audience.