One of the harshest realities of being a parent in today’s America is dealing with school shootings. As parents, we constantly toe the line of protecting our babies and sending them out into the world where anything can happen. Especially parents of elementary school-aged kids who don’t fully understand what a school shooting is.
Parents of young students have to figure out how much to “prepare” their children for the possibility of a school shooting. And one mom on TikTok is going viral for highlighting just how difficult that decision is for so many of us.
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The video is too real.
Eeka McLeod, a single mom of three disabled and neurodivergent children, shared a video on TikTok where she shows her 7-year-old daughter how to “play dead” in the event of an active shooter. The video has over 4 million likes, and over 10,000 comments.
“When did this become our reality?” McLeod asks on the video.
It is such a depressing reality for so many parents.
“This doesn’t feel real. Ella is 7. She’s in 2nd grade now,” McCleod begins in the video’s caption. “She’s still learning to read & has the tiniest little lisp 🥹 She loves playing mommy with her baby dolls, would rather be outside caring for her chickens, & still cries for me when she has a nightmare. This doesn’t feel real. ELLA IS 7.”
She continues, “No parent should have to even think if discussing with the children what many of us are actively forced to practice with them. This doesn’t feel real. ELLA IS 7. SEVEN! I hate this so much 😭😭😭.”
The comments will absolutely break your heart.
“:( had to tell my 5 yr old not to try to save his brother and listen to his teacher when she says all eyes on me,” one parent wrote “He said ‘but my brother is so loud mom…will he be dead from the bad man.'”
“This … hurts my heart,” another person shared. “My niece wanted light up shoes for school so we got em. she came home crying because they told her no because if she runs in an emergency the bad guys will see her.”
Another parent explained: “This is wild. I tell mine to find the nearest window and get out. We rehearsed opening them on teacher meet day.”
“My 7 yr old nephew recently had a drill at their school,” another comment reads. “I spent the day with him 1:1 the other day and he asks ‘what if a bad guy comes and mommy & daddy are too far away to get me.'”
“I had to tell my son not to be a hero (he is the type to stand up for others) it breaks my heart but priority is to get himself out of there alive 💔,” someone else wrote.
As sad as it is, McLeod is doing the right thing.
McLeod spoke with BuzzFeed about why she made the video. She explained that her daughter Ella had done an active shooter drill at school but didn’t really understand why. She felt that it was the “perfect opportunity to discuss active shooters on a deeper level.”
“She actually laughed when I told her that people come onto school campuses and shoot children,” McLeod revealed. “Even at 7 years old, she thought the entire concept of someone doing something so heinous was unbelievable.”
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This is an ongoing lesson she's teaching her children.
McLeod told the outlet that she practices these drills weekly with her children.
“I have been quizzing them with questions such as, ‘Who can you trust?’ And they’ll respond with ‘You.’ Or ‘Are you allowed to cry even if you’re the most scared you’ve ever been in your life?’ And they’ll say, ‘NO,'” she explains.
She says she tries to “cover all my bases” with these drills, including providing different scenarios. “We talk about hiding, staying quiet, getting under someone else’s body, putting other people’s blood on her, etc.,” she shared.
It’s a painful but very necessary lesson that many parents can learn from.
