A 10-year-old on what happens in an active shooter drill

Hari Sreenivasan:

StoryCorps has been recording and sharing real experiences from people who have extraordinary stories to tell. In this animated short, 10-year-old Dezmond Floyd and his mother have a difficult but important conversation about active shooter drills in school.

Tanai Benard:

So can you tell me exactly what happens in active shooter drills?

Dezmond Floyd:

The teacher's supposed to lock the door, turn the lights off and push this big desk behind the door. And the first time I did a active shooter drill, I saw her having a hard time with this, so I decided to come help her.

Tanai Benard:

So what do you do next after you push the table?

Dezmond Floyd:

The class is supposed to stand on the back wall, but I decided to stand in front of the class because I want to take the bullet and save my friends.

Tanai Benard:

So does your teacher ask you to stand in front the class?

Dezmond Floyd:

No. My life matters, but it's kind of like, there is one person I can come home to the family, or they can be 22 people they come to the family. I get that you will want me to come home, but it's really not a choice that you can make. It's a choice I have to make.

Tanai Benard:

I see now that there's nothing I can say that would change your mind. I just hope that it never comes to that.

Dezmond Floyd:

Talking about this makes me feel sad. But you raised a good person.

Tanai Benard:

And this is why I can't have the conversation with you. You keep saying things like that. I'm speechless. You are 10 and you're that 10 year old who doesn't clean their room and — there is no handbook for this. This is why the conversation always ends between you and I in that silence. Because I'm a mother. And I don't know what to say.