The UK tour of Mean Girls canceled its Belfast run amid racist unrest in Northern Ireland. Vivian Panka, the first Black actress to play Regina George in the tour, says she has been afraid to leave her house. https://www.onstageblog.com/onstage-blog-news/2026/6/12/uk-tour-stop-of-mean-girls-canceled-amid-racist-unrest

Valarie asks Parents to read and respond, so I'll do the same. What do you hear this mother saying? What meaning does it have for you? Here's the post: ___________________________________ I am going to say this, then I’m off of it, and off social media for a while: As a Black mother who raised Black sons, the verdict has stirred up emotions that have very little to do with one case and everything to do with a reality many of us have lived. I sacrificed for the education of my children. Because I could not afford private school, I drove six children to four different schools because I believed access mattered. I believed environment mattered. I believed opportunity mattered. Eventually, I moved my family to Allen (in Collin County) because it was considered at the time, one of the best school districts in the nation. What I learned was that academic opportunity and emotional safety are not always the same thing. My son’s first major disciplinary issue came from being late to class. Something that might have earned detention elsewhere resulted in placement in an alternative setting. And once he was sent there, something else happened that many people don’t talk about. He found people who looked like him. Children who had been labeled. Children who had been separated. Children who had already begun carrying the weight of other people’s assumptions. In many ways, they became family to one another. Not because they were bad children, but because they shared a common experience. They knew what it felt like to stand on the outside looking in. When a child feels rejected by one community, they will almost always build another. Years later, one fight, one interpretation of events, and one decision resulted in a felony charge that followed him long after childhood was over, and eventually landed him inside of the prison system. So when I look at situations involving young men of color, I cannot help but think about the things that happen before the headlines. The isolation.