School shootings are way too prevalent today, especially after the most recent shooting. It’s terrible, but we have to have tough conversations with our children to make sure they are prepared for anything.
Tanai Benard who is a teacher as well as a parent had one of those tough talks recently with her son, Dez. She began with making sure they were talking about it in their school, but what happened next made her cry!
Here’s what she posted on Facebook and it went kinda viral with over 370k likes and 170k shares:
“My 5th grader and I were conversing on the way to work/school this morning. As an educator, I wanted to be sure he and his classmates were taking the school safety drills seriously and not using it as a time to socialize and goof off.
Me: Have you guys praticed a lockdown drill in class yet?
Dez: Are you talking about an active shooter drill?
Me: Yes
Dez: Yes, we practiced it
Me: So tell me what you are suppose to do.
Dez: The teacher is suppose to shut and lock the door, put the black paper over the window on the door.
Then myself and three other boys are suppose to push the table against the door.
After that all the class is going to stand behind us on the back wall.”
Now this was very concerning to Benard, why would her son be one of the “first on the line?” She expected the worse due to her son being only one of two black children in the class. But much to her surprise, he answered with a very different reason…
“Me: The class is suppose to stand behind who?
Dez: Me and the other 3 boys. We stand at the front and they get behind us.
*I internally went from 0 to 100 real quick. My child is one of only 2 black children in a class of 23. Being transparent, I immediately went to the “why is my black son being put on the front line?” (Just being real) So I asked before I verbally stated my thoughts*
Me: Why did you get picked to stand in front of everyone else if a shooter came in your school?
Dez: I didn’t get picked. I volunteered to push the table and protect my friends
Me: 😯*immediate nausea * Dez why would you volunteer to do that?
Dez: If it came down to it I would rather be the one that died protecting my friends then have an entire class die and I be the only one that lived
Father God, it took everything out of me not to breakdown. I still have a lump in my throat. 10 damn years old and this has to be our babies thought process in America.”
Here’s a picture of their entire family:
I think it’s safe to say she’s doing something right as a parent. This is sad that a 10 year old has to come up with these thoughts, but hopefully this will really show that our lawmakers need to get something done.