Kara Robinson Ate. But Many Still Missed the Message.

So, you saw the video.

A Black woman teacher—sharp and ready to risk it all—stands in front of the Prince George’s County Board of Education and dares to say it with her chest. Not the vague and polished thing about schools. The real thing: That the system is abusive. That the burnout isn’t theoretical. That loyalty without reciprocity is indoctrination.  (She even lay out the plan for when and how she will quit).

AI Generated Image of Woman (like Kara) Speaking at Public Meeting

You hit “like.” From what I last saw, over 78,000 followers did. Some of those were teachers I know, folks who also shared it out, with some version of “What she said.” Others shared it with captions like “This!” or “Say it louder!” Good. But here’s the problem: too many people treat the scream as the message.

The scream is just the siren. The real message is what follows.

So here’s your field guide to actually hearing Kara Robinson—and the thousands of educators like her:

1. Don’t Romanticize the Rage. Interrogate the System.

What Kara did wasn’t a mic drop moment. It was a resignation letter --albeit one written 2 years in advance, give or take--wrapped in both hopelessness and defiance. Don’t treat her like a viral preacher giving Sunday fire. Ask yourself: Why did it take a viral video for you to listen? And why are so many teachers—especially Black women—forced to perform emotional labor to be believed?

If you really hear her, you won’t repost and move on. You’ll look for the policies, pay gaps, and professional gaslighting that created her exhaustion.

2. Respect That This Wasn’t Just Passion—It Was Data.

Kara told you she’s got degrees. A point that I greatly appreciated because, in my own work, I am uncovering the myth of the 'underprepared and under-qualified teacher that is responsible for her own misery' (but I’ll save that for a future post). For now, just know that when she told you she’s been doing the work, her “scream” is backed by metrics:

• Teacher vacancies at record highs.

• Mid-career educators leaving in droves.

• Disproportionate emotional labor falling on teachers in urban schools.

If you really hear her, you’ll stop waiting for white papers and start honoring lived expertise.

3. Stop Asking Teachers to Be Saints. Demand That They Be Safe.

Her words weren’t about quitting. They were about surviving. She didn’t say she didn’t love teaching. She said she refused to be abused in its name.

If you really hear her, you’ll stop measuring good teaching by how much pain someone’s willing to endure.

4. Understand That This Wasn’t an Outlier—It Was a Broadcast from the Front Lines.

You want to know what it’s like inside schools right now? That video was the staff meeting. That speech was the hallway whisper. Teachers have been screaming -- Most of us just haven’t heard them. Until now.

If you really hear her, you’ll amplify the message—not just the moment.

…But Before You Light a Torch, Let’s Talk About the Bigger System Kara Was Screaming Into

Here’s the part where I might lose a few of you. Because yes—Kara Robinson was bold, the ideal mix of snarky and brilliant. And yes—maybe in her particular district, at this moment, there are administrators or decision-makers who have failed to listen or lead with care.

But let me stop you before we oversimplify the message as a “bad district” or “uncaring bureaucracy” problem.

Because I don’t just hear Kara as a teacher or as a viewer. I hear her as someone trained in Human Development and Family Studies, as someone who studies systems, and who works every day to support teachers who are suffocating not just from leadership failures—but from the structural violence of poverty and racism that most people refuse to name.

If you really want to hear Kara, and the thousands of others like her, you have to zoom out.

This Isn’t Just About PG County.

This is about a national crisis with racial and economic roots—and here are four (more) ways to understand it:

5. We Are Asking Schools to Solve the Problems We Don’t Want to Solve as a Society.

Educators are being tasked with fixing the results of generational poverty, trauma, underemployment, institutional racism and systemic neglect. Schools are not mental health centers, crisis shelters, or community food banks—yet they’ve become all of those things by default.

Kara is screaming because she’s expected to be a therapist, security guard, data analyst, and miracle worker—for a salary that can’t even guarantee safe housing in her district.

6. We Don’t Talk About Trauma Anymore—We Weaponize It or Ignore It.

Remember the trauma-informed movement that surged a few years ago? It’s fading—not because trauma is gone, but because the language of care has become politicized and deemed “soft.”

Teachers are left holding emotional grenades with no protective gear. And worse, they’re now blamed for not being “resilient enough” when they flinch.

We can’t address what Kara is naming until we stop acting like trauma is a buzzword and admit that poverty and racism are traumatic systems—not just individual experiences.

7. Anti-Womanness and Anti-Teacher Sentiment Are Two Sides of the Same Coin.

Let’s name this too: Women (and the teaching profession is largely women) are punished when they refuse to smile through pain. Kara Robinson didn’t just express frustration—she asserted a boundary. And we live in a country where women who assert boundaries (and probably, especially Black women) get labeled “angry,” “ungrateful,” or “unprofessional.”

If a white male teacher gave that same speech, he’d likely also be taken more seriously. His accomplishments and qualifications wouldn’t be in question. Kara is “viral” but is she taken seriously? Watch the difference.

8. We’re Turning on Each Other Because We’re Exhausted (and Distracted by) What Politicians Now Refuse to Name.

Parents blame teachers. Teachers blame administrators. Administrators blame central office. Central office blames the state. And the state? It blames everyone but itself. This blame cycle keeps us disillusioned and divided—right when we most need solidarity.

We are so fatigued by injustice—and so discouraged by the political backlash against equity—that we’ve started avoiding root causes altogether.

So What Now?

If you’re reading this and feel like you’ve been hit in the gut—thank Goodness. That’s what learning new and uncomfortable truths does sometimes.

Don’t stop at admiration of Kara Robinson. Let it stir something deeper. Show up. Speak up. Stay loud. Because this isn’t just one woman’s story. It’s a systemic echo. And until we rebuild the system itself, the screaming won’t stop—it’ll just go unheard again.

✅ Attend your local school board meetings—even when nothing’s “trending.” 

✅ Challenge the way trauma, race, and poverty are erased from education conversations. 

✅ Ask the teachers in your life what they need—and believe them. 

✅ Advocate for policies that fund equity, not just slogans that sound like it. 

✅ Stop expecting schools to save what society keeps breaking. And most of all, refuse to settle for a system that breaks the people trying to hold it together.

💥 Subscribe to Scream Like Someone’s Listening

If you found truth in this post, please, please, please subscribe to Scream Like Someone’s Listening. This isn’t a one-time reaction post. This is what I do: I elevate the voices of educators who are trying to hold up a crumbling system. (Mind you, I did not say broken system because, in reality, our schools and our teachers and, yes, even our administrators, are doing far better than they are allowed to believe---but that's for another post). I don't stop with listing the problems—I work from the inside, with lived experience and probing research, to push us toward solutions that are human and backed by science.

Because screaming only works if someone’s listening. And healing only starts when we decide to respond.

→ Subscribe. Share. Stay in this with me. Because the next scream might be your own. Link to Video: Robinson, K. [@kre_creates]. (2025, May). Calling for Change: Addressing Teacher Shortages [Video]. TikTok. https://www.tiktok.com/@kre_creates/video/7503333505145883935