Kavan Yee was in the kitchen on a quiet March evening when he saw the news about a mass shooting in Atlanta on his computer screen. A 21-year-old white male had gone on a shooting spree, killing eight people—six of them were Asian women. Yee says he barely had time to process the horrific news before his 11-year-old daughter, Kellyn, started asking questions.

As an educator, Yee recognizes the importance of having a direct and open dialogue with children when terrible events happen. “There’s a lot of confusion, and children want to know that they are safe,” says Yee, the director of middle school at Lowell School in Washington, D.C. “It’s natural for kids to have a lot of questions, especially