A few days after the Parkland shooting in Florida, where 17 people died, it is normal for parents to be worried and difficult conversations with their children about safety in schools.
Tanai Benard, mother of a fifth-grade child, has shared a conversation on her Facebook profile that makes our hair stand on end. Play the Dialogue he had with his son Dez, ten years old, about the shooting drills they carry out at their school to know how to act if one occurs.
As a safety measure, the centers conduct drills to teach children how to act in a life-threatening situation. It is tremendous but at the same time necessary, since unfortunately it is something quite frequent, and it is important to be prepared for protect themselves and others.
What this mother certainly did not expect is her ten-year-old son's answer when asked about these practices at her school.
"My fifth grader and I were chatting on the way to work / school this morning. As an educator, I wanted to make sure he and his classmates took safety drills seriously and didn't use them as A moment to socialize and have fun.
-Yo: Have you already done a mock in class confinement?
-Dez: Yes
-Yo: Tell me what you are supposed to do
-Dez: The teacher is supposed to close and lock the door, put black paper on the window in the door. Then, I and three other children are supposed to push the table against the door. After that, the whole class will be behind us on the back wall.
The mother says it was "internally from 0 to 100". As his son is one of two black children of the twenty-three students in his class, he immediately thought of a racist reason. So the conversation continued:
-Why did they choose you to stand in front of everyone else if a shooter entered your school?
-Dez: They didn't choose me. I offered to push the table and protect my friends.
-Yo: (immediate nausea) Dez, why would you like to volunteer to do that?
-Dez: If the time came, I'd rather be the one to die protecting my friends instead of watching everyone die and be the only survivor.
He confesses that he had to hide so as not to fall apart in front of his son and that he was left with "a lump in his throat" at his unexpected response.
A gesture that breaks our hearts
I can't imagine that mother's anguish after the talk with her son. May your son offer himself volunteer to protect your friends It is a beautiful and brave gesture. But at the same time it is outrageous that a ten-year-old boy, from his innocence, has to place himself in that position of preferring to give his life for not seeing his friends die. These are thoughts that should not even cross the head of a ten-year-old child.
Schools are supposed to be safe places for children, where they will learn and socialize, but unfortunately in the United States they also have to worry about saving their lives.
Hopefully things change soon and this type of conversation between parents and children does not have to happen anymore.
