As doctors think about the havoc the global pandemic may cause in a classroom and education experts discuss learning loss, they need to hear from students — particularly from Black and brown students.

In short, we are all dealing with some form of trauma or anxiety. For the last year and a half, we have been in and out of school buildings, scared for our lives. The pandemic had a particularly tragic impact on our communities.

We’ve also witnessed state-sanctioned violence on young teenagers who look like us.

So as the country grapples with going back to school this year, the first people school leaders should be talking to are students and our families — from all communities, not just those that are predominantly white or wealthy.

School leaders need to ask us — students of color, students who are differently abled and students from communities where investment in education is low and resources are few — how we feel about going back to school.

If they do ask us, they will learn that we feel scared and sad. We are fearful because the schools we left caused us harm.

We don’t feel safe returning. And it’s not only because of the pandemic. Many of us are in schools that feel like jails. We are surrounded by police and under constant surveillance.

Right now, some of us aren’t free to learn, explore and make mistakes in our schools. Instead, in our middle schools, we are seeing police handcuff our friends and slam them into cop cars. In our high schools, we are watching students get pepper-sprayed in common areas between their classes.

Read the full article about funding education by Desiree Rodriguez and Alex Sosa at The Hechinger Report.