Talking to Kids About Osama bin Laden's Death

Recently columnist Krista Surprenant posted a column on “.” This column proved timely this week with Osama bin Laden’s . Many school-aged children were either not born or very young on 9/11 and bin Laden’s death brought the incident back to the forefront of many .

Talking to a parents’ group on the Shoreline, many with younger children chose to avoid the topic altogether with most saying their children were too young to understand. Those who did discuss the topic, kept it in simple terms. Kim Mastriano’s four-year-old son Tegan asked who the man on TV was.

“I explained to him how a few years ago bad guys flew a plane into the Twin Towers killing a lot of people and how bin Laden was the bad guy and he just got caught,” said Mastriano of East Haven. “I try to keep it simple and give him smaller bits of information to process at a time.”

One of the biggest concerns for many parents wasn’t the actual news of bin Laden’s death, but more so the reaction to it.

“I’m just going to keep AJ away from it–he's three–because I find it hard to explain the celebration end of it,” said Mary-Elissa Giovanni of Northford. “It still leaves some hard topics for little ones. This particular situation is extra hard for parents to try to talk about with kids because there are a lot of confusing things involved–we are supposed to forgive our enemies, killing is bad and never justified, not being happy about others’ suffering; yet this situation is unique. How do you explain it without confusing little kids from lessons we try to teach them?”

Shannan Henry-Colvin, a Wallingford mom to a four-year-old, also said she won’t be broaching the topic voluntarily because of its confusing nuances.

“We haven't talked about it, and I don't see a reason to at such a young age unless it comes up, for some reason,” said Henry-Colvin, who also shared this article by Tim Wise. “Whether someone deserves to die or not, celebrating the event doesn't seem right.”

For most parents talked to in the playgroup, they avoided the topic or kept it to simple terms like “catching the bad guys.” However, once children reach the age where they go to school, parents have less control about what their children may hear.

Branford’s Lauren O’Keefe’s five-year-old son Liam attends a school that goes up to 8th grade. Worried he might hear people talking at school, she and her husband approached the issue simply beforehand.

“Steve told him that the Army guys had killed a bad guy–that's it. I asked him this afternoon if anyone at school was talking about it and he said, ‘No.’ ,” said O’Keefe, who is a high school teacher at Foran High School in Milford. “I was surprised that none of my high school students were talking about it at school. I'm not a social studies teacher so I hope that they were covering the moment and possible ramifications.”

There were no directives passed down as far as how to handle the situation at , but in the younger schools, the issue was handled with care.

Alan Davis, the principal of , said the topic was discussed in social studies class and shared some details provided by the teachers, noting that “there is a higher level of caution taken with discussing this issue with the younger 6th-graders.”

The 6th-grade students were very young in 2001 and teachers said there weren’t too many question. Because it is a current event, however, bin Laden’s death was discussed with teachers making sure to “keep the conversation light as we do not want to frighten or cause the students to worry.”

The topic was more detailed in the 7th-grade’s Current Events Minimester as students began by discussing the events of 9/11 and the role bin Laden played in those events. The classes analyzed headlines and photographs that led to discussions about people's reactions to bin Laden's death.  

The 7th-graders also discussed the impact of Sept. 11, 2001 on the American homefront and abroad, including the United States’ military involvement with Afghanistan and Iraq. The classes concluded by watching President Barack Obama's national address concerning bin Laden's death.

Teachers at that grade level noted their goals to be for students to know who bin Laden is and why his death is "headline" news and for students to contemplate whether or not his death will bring closure or renew hostilities.

There was even more classroom discussion at the 8th-grade level. On the Gold Team, students discussed the situation and viewed two video clips–one from ABC News that gave background on the terrorist acts orchestrated by bin Laden and the other was the President’s address outlining the process of tracking down bin Laden and its impact on the nation.

The Rainbow Team began by asking students about their prior knowledge of 9/11, which spurred classroom conversations that centered on the potential impact on future events and the effect on terrorism, in general.

At , which has students in grades 3 to 5, Principal Kris Lindsay did not issue specific guidelines regarding bin Laden’s death.  

“In general, I expect teachers to use their discretion and professionalism to provide students with information pertaining to the world they live in,” said Lindsay. “Current events are regarded as part of ongoing social studies instruction. As the school leader, it is important to me that students feel safe asking questions and that responses are developmentally appropriate, politically neutral and responsibly delivered.”