A Plus Attitude

"We are all different, and we all make a difference." These words are part of the A Plus Attitudes that I read out loud and the rest of school repeats after me. Kindergarten through fifth grades. Teachers and parents. We repeat these words together because it is what we teach. It is what we want the kids to learn. It is what we want to believe.
My wife told me that she wants to believe that the kid who set fire to another kid on a bus in Oakland last week was just "playing a prank." That would be the very nicest possible lens through which this event could be viewed. You see, Sasha Fleischman was different. Choosing to identify as neither male nor female, eighteen-year-old Sasha shows up as different. Sasha shows up as a challenge for pronouns at the very least. Sasha also shows up, periodically, in a skirt. It was that skirt that was lit on fire by the "prankster" as Sasha slept on the bus home from school. As a parent, of all the threats to the kids of Oakland, falling asleep on the bus isn't one that you might expect to have to warn against. Remaining ever-vigilant against the possibility of roving practical jokers with lighters is not where I would spend my parental lecturing hours.
Neither my wife nor I actually believe that Sasha was attacked because of some teenager's incredibly poor sense of humor. I believe Sasha was a target because of that difference. That diversity that Oakland celebrates so proudly doesn't always seem to play out in every corner of this melting pot of a city. How do we choose to celebrate that diversity? By setting people on fire?
Sasha Fleischman is different, here to make a difference. This is what we believe.