TEMPLE, Texas — Cassie Walton, a mother from Oklahoma, went viral on Tiktok for recording a video of her son practicing for an active shooter situation.
The video has more than seven million views and 40,000 comments, with mixed public reaction. Most of the reactions say the mother is inappropriate for exposing her son to such violent ideas at a young age.
Those in support, however, are praising the mother for starting the always important conversation about safety at home. Temple Police Officer Undrea Mitchell feels the same.
"We should all take this very seriously. Fortunately, we're in a day in time where we have to expose our kids to things that normally they wouldn't be exposed to years ago," Mitchell, a School Resource Officer said. "So taking that time out to educate them and tell them hey, this is what you need to do. These are the things you need do, you need to listen to the instruction from adults. I think that's great."
Walton says she even purchased a bulletproof backpack for her son, and based on the video, it seems she's already been over escape tactics with her son plenty of times.
"A teacher calls over the intercom says it's not a drill everybody go in the corner and be really quiet and still what do you do?" Walton asked her son.
After a series of drills and scenarios, her biggest piece of advice to her son was to run far, far away from the school if he were to escape.
"Show me okay, you get out of the building where do you go? Where do you run outside?" Walton says. "You run as far away from the school as you can go. Mommy will find you."
Officer Mitchell says police everywhere are training diligently and children's safety is at the forefront of their goals ahead of this school year.
Most importantly, he wants to make sure every kid can feel safe at school.
"I just want to make sure that everybody understands that your police departments are taking this seriously and we're here for your kids. We're here for the campuses and we're going to be doing our jobs and make sure that our kids are inside of a building that they can consider safe."