With a drastic increase in school shootings this past year and the Parkland Florida massacre acting as a catalyst for nationwide panic, parents and teachers everywhere are equipping their kids for the worst.
Tanai Bernard, a mom (and educator of 300 students herself), was having a serious talk with her 5th-grade son Dez on the way to school earlier this week about safety drills. Tanai wanted to make sure his classroom was taking the necessary precautions to prepare for an emergency.
Throughout the course of the conversation, she discovered that HER son was designated to stand in the front line during the shooting drills.
Knowing her child was one of only two black kids in a class of 23, the alarmed mother’s blood instantly started to boil.
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But Dez’s reply to WHY he was one of the three boys standing in the front line shocked her even more.
Tanai was so blown away by her 10-year-old’s response that she had to share it with the world on Facebook, and her viral post has since amassed nearly half a million likes and shares.
Read Tanai and Dez’s powerful interaction below, and let us know what you think in the comments!
“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.
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 [darn] years old and this has to be our babies thought process in America.”
