Student letters to the president: 'Please help our community in Buffalo by not letting white people kill black people'

"Some of our kids live on that block or within a couple blocks of that Tops. Some of them were there earlier in the day," Borek said.

Some were crying, others were quiet. And rather than teaching math and science, Borek spent the time comforting her students, talking and listening as they grappled with a life lesson no one wanted them to learn.

The next day the bilingual students at Frank A. Sedita Community School were still dejected. The conversations in class continued, and they made posters.

"We had a really big discussion about what is racism," Borek said.

With her students feeling bereft and powerless, Borek came up with an idea to give them an opportunity to do something positive.

"I said 'Let's write to the president," she said.

Perhaps inspired by the visit of President Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, to Buffalo to comfort families of the victims, the children quickly took to the idea.

"They were really excited. Writing is never a 10-year-old's favorite task. They were asking to skip other subjects to work on their letters," she said. "It was an empowering moment."

The children talked about racism in their letters, and implored the president to do something about it.

"Racism means hating people for their skin color," one student wrote.

"As president, I think you should build more grocery stores because black people don’t have access to them," another student wrote. "As our leader, you need to stop racism. Please help our community in Buffalo by not letting white people kill black people."

"I have experienced racism when my neighbor wanted my family to move because we were Hispanic," was the comment from another child.

"Racism is a horrible occurrence. As our leader, you need to sign laws about penalties for discrimination. Please help our community in Buffalo by trying to end racism," another child pleaded.

"Please help our community in Buffalo by desegregating schools, stores and services," wrote one student, who also left a phone number in case the president wants to call.

“One way racism impacts people is when somebody says something bad to them, they feel like they are disgusting. We can fight racism by explaining to others about racism, being kind and respectful to all. ... As president I think you should take racial crimes very seriously,” suggested another child.

Others wanted to fight racism by putting up signs that said, "Black lives matter."

"It is important to talk about racism because if we don’t," one child wrote, "white people are going to keep killing black people."

Borek said she asked her students if they had ever experienced racism.

"Most of my students are Hispanic and biracial, and almost all of them were able to talk about a time they saw it themselves or are aware it had happened," she said. "That was powerful but also sad, because I can't go back and fix that for them."