Cindy Campos and her son, a preschooler at Stemmons Elementary, read Stay Safe.
This article was updated May 18 to reflect a response from Dallas ISD officials.
Young Dallas ISD students this week came home with a book that disturbed some parents.
Cindy Campos’ son Bowie was excited to read a book his pre-Kindergarten teacher at Stemmons Elementary handed out. As the family settled in at their Oak Cliff home, the young mom had a look at what she thought would be tonight’s bedtime literature.
The cover featured a familiar cartoon character, Winnie-the-Pooh, whose original image became public domain in 2022. It’s titled “Stay Safe” above the subtitle “Run Hide Fight,” which most Americans now know as protocol for reacting to an active shooter. (It’s like the “Stop Drop Roll” we learned for fire safety).
Campos says she wasn’t sure about reading it with Bowie. She thought about it for hours, wondering what his teacher — who she describes as fiery, loved, great — was thinking by sending this home with no warning, no instruction.
“There’s nothing inappropriate about the book itself, but the intent behind it …” she says.
Later she found a second copy of the book in her first-grader Mason’s backpack. “Oh, OK, it’s like that,” she said to herself, realizing the book was sent home by the school or the district.
When Bowie begged her that night to read it, she complied. And while the preschooler enjoyed it — guessing, he told Mom, that it was about hiding and running from his “dangerous” big brother in a game of IT — Cindy experienced mounting anxiety.
She was plagued with thoughts of Uvalde, Texas, where one year ago this week a gunman massacred 19 children and two adults.
Adding to her apprehension was a sort of survivor’s guilt, she says.
She was putting herself in those parents’ shoes and could not fathom the heartbreak, she says.
“All I want after [the last day of school] is to take my kids home and sit on our couch. But there are families in Uvalde that can’t do that,” she says. “There are going to be more families that can’t do that and this book shows me that.”
One one hand, the book prompted her to have a conversation with her son. “Bowie asked so many questions before going to bed. And as a mom you have to figure out the correct but realistic way to say things.”
But, along with the regular active shooter drills, she says she’s afraid school shootings are being accepted as a part of life and “normalized.”
She’s not alone. When she anonymously posted her feelings, along with photos of the book, on a neighborhood Facebook group (she initially feared she would be criticized for overreacting), she realized students from other schools including Stevens Park Elementary had brought home the same book. Other parents were feeling the same uneasiness.
We realize the need for disaster preparation, though it should not be a substitute for other actions summarizes several of the responses.
Many commented that they felt the district, or whoever decided to send home the books, should have included accompanying literature for parents.
Others pointed out the callousness of putting this in backpacks sans any sort of heads-up while simultaneously banning arguably less disturbing books from schools and libraries. And there was an overall feeling of horror that this is where we are as a society.
A second-grade teacher commented that the “Stay Safe” books were placed in her mailbox Monday afternoon with no additional information.
In a written response, Dallas ISD said that “The reality that Dallas ISD faces is no different than any other school district in America. We work every day to prevent school shootings by dealing with online threats and by hardening our schools. In addition, we conduct active shooter drills, so students know what to do in case the unthinkable happens.”
Regarding the Pooh book, “Recently a booklet was sent home so parents could discuss with their children how to stay safe in such cases. Unfortunately, we did not provide parents any guide or context. We apologize for the confusion and are thankful to parents who reached out to assist us in being better partners.”
We also have reached out to the author-illustrators of the book, Chief Ken Adcox and Brittany Adcox-Flores (teacher, according to the book cover), but have not yet heard back.
Pages of the Pooh book indicate it “was created in collaboration with active police officers and classroom teachers” to “teach and reinforce concepts of the run, hide, fight format, recommended by the FBI and Department of Homeland Security” in an “age-appropriate format.”
A spread of the book provided by parents
It is a Praetorian Publication by Praetorian Consulting, a Houston-based law enforcement, safety and crisis management consulting company.
The content (which includes illustrations of the woodland creatures with messages such as “If there is danger, let Winnie-the-Pooh and his crew show you what to do” … “we should run like Rabbit” … “hide like pooh until police appear” … “hide without making a sound in a place we cannot be found” … “if we have cell phones, turn off all the tones”) offers valid, gentle crisis-response instruction and is not anything that would outright scare children, but it is undoubtedly troubling the minds of parents.
Couple pages of the book, from parents
In a Child Mind Institute article, the institute’s director of trauma and resilience service Dr. Jamie Howard affirms that “parents tend to worry about school shootings more than their children do.”
But, Howard adds, “kids are very good at picking up on the fears of their parents, and if they sense that Mom or Dad is afraid, they will take notice.”
Howard noted that “participating in political activism or efforts to support mental health and wellness in your community can make you feel like you are making a difference.”
For mom Cindy Campos, airing out her worries and finding support online and within her neighborhood has helped alleviate some anxiety. The tactile response and surrounding discussion has motivated her to be more active when it comes to having a voice and doing what she can to make children safer, she says.
“I’m so thankful for the commenters who showed me more things I can do to be heard.”
