The Creators
Meet the team behind William H.G. Butler Middle School
SANDHYA NANKANI
Sandhya is the founder of Literary Safari, which creates diverse & inclusive children’s and educational media and a founding member of KIDMAP, the Kids’ Inclusive and Diverse Media Action Project. For the past decade, she has developed digital and print content and curriculum on subjects ranging from the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals and post-9/11 identity profiling to industrialization, literacy, and STEM careers. Born in Ghana, she was raised there and in India before moving to the US in middle school.
Q&A with Sandhya
Why does telling a story like this matter to you?
When the Sandy Hook school shooting took place in 2013, I was a mother of a three-year old. The event shook me up, and I immediately organized a candlelight vigil in the small town in New Jersey that my family had just moved to. The increasing number of school shootings and their impact on schools, parents, and children is something I think about every single day. I ask myself: Is it fair that my child has to learn how to behave in an active shooter event and that her teachers are asked to be the first line of defense? What impact will this have on a generation of students and on our school systems in the years to come?
In the years since Sandy Hook, I have constantly been on the lookout for materials that explore the social-emotional aspects of school shootings. As a children’s media producer, I am a big believer in the power of storytelling and my hope is that the story of William Butler Middle School can be used as a tool for meaningful discussions about gun violence, lockdown drills, and school safety decisions by parents, educators, and advocacy groups.
What piece of research, or news story, resonated deeply with you as you were creating this story? Why?
The New York Times’ cultural critic James Poniewozik’s op-ed, This is School in America Now. It aptly describes the harsh new reality that faces children in our country today and invites us to really look at what is becoming normalized.
I was also struck by the FBI study, “A Survey of the Pre-Attack Behaviors of Active Shooters Between 2000–2013,” released in June 2018 found that 79% of active shooters acted with a particular grievance in mind, and that conflicts with friends/peers (18%), conflicts at school (14%), and conflicts with parents and other family members (21%) together make up 53% of the stressors. These three conflicts are particularly applicable to the lives of children and adolescents.
NAKUL SRINIVAS
Nakul is a rising sophomore at Brandeis University studying Economics. His research interests include anthropology, economics, and cellular and molecular biology. In his free time, he enjoys illustrating, political campaigning, and spending time with friends and family. He lives in New York with his mother, father, and younger brother
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Q&A with Nakul
Why does telling a story like this matter to you?
The purpose was to shock the audience with a dystopian narrative that is actually based on true American accounts from research findings. It’s an innovative approach to raising awareness about a cause.
What piece of research, or news story, resonated deeply with you as you were creating this story? Why?
What resonated with me the most were the teachers’ voices in the articles I found. Teachers are really facing this problem, and our incorporation of teachers’ voices is what makes this story so genuine and real.
Nakul was the sole illustrator of @williambutlerms.
CASEY MCCONVILLE
Casey is a rising junior and Psychology major at Middlebury College. She is a passionate writer, an avid reader, and an adventurous eater. She is also a lover of “trashy” reality television, as she believes it gives a unique look into the complexities of the human psyche.
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Q&A with Casey
Why does telling a story like this matter to you?
This story matters because it highlights the absurdity of the recent surge of school shootings in the US. By addressing this problem from a satirical perspective, our narrative provokes discomfort as the reader comes to understand the futility of any “solution” that doesn’t directly confront this country’s severe lack of gun control.
What piece of research, or news story, resonated deeply with you as you were creating this story? Why?
The article that resonated most deeply with me was titled “‘It was my job, and I didn’t find him’: Stoneman Douglas resource officer remains haunted by massacre.” The story detailed the severe blame and backlash a Stoneman Douglas security guard faced after he was unable to locate the perpetrator of the deadly shooting at the high school this past school year. The article was deeply saddening — as a society, we tend to place blame for societal problems on individuals who do not act “bravely” enough in life-threatening situations. The article only intensified my frustration with our lack of effective gun control. Instead of implementing meaningful policies, we instead task often unequipped individuals with the immense responsibility of protecting our children.
ANJALI SAKHRANI
Anjali is Literary Safari’s Lead Creative Producer. She graduated with an MA in Media Studies from the New School where her focus was in interdisciplinary storytelling and design. She’s pretty enthusiastic about doodling and can often be found attempting to clothe her stick figures in Talking Heads t-shirts.
Q&A with Anjali
Why does telling a story like this matter to you?
There is an immense onus being put on schools and students to adapt to the climate of mass gun violence rather than on our lawmakers and representatives in congress. One of the aims of this story was to show this imbalance.
What piece of research, or news story, resonated deeply with you as you were creating this story? Why?
I was really taken by the industry that’s been created in response to mass school shootings and the normalcy with which bulletproof items are being sold to kids and families. When we started this project earlier in the summer, seeing stories of bulletproof backpacks on sale made me uncomfortable, because to me, this symbolized a loss of innocence. I quickly realized that backpacks were only scratching the surface. There are shields, clipboards, jackets– you name it. This commodification felt dark, dystopian, and stranger than fiction, and ultimately became a real cornerstone for the William Butler Middle School narrative.
