When Cassie Walton was buying school supplies for her soon-to-be kindergartener she had a fresh pack of crayons, notebooks and a bulletproof backpack on her shopping list.
"It makes me feel very sad that we have come to this as a country and I wish I could be different," Walton, 23, told TODAY Parents, adding that she is most scared that "something will happen to him in a place where he is supposed to be the most safe."
To help prepare her son, Weston, 5, to start school this year, the Oklahoma mom posted a video to TikTok where she coaches the young boy through an active shooter situation.
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In the now-viral video, Walton asks her son what he would do if someone at school says over the intercom "This is not a drill."
Weston, toting his bulletproof Spiderman backpack, replies, "Get in the corner and be really quiet and still."
Walton then asked her son, "Show me how you use your bulletproof backpack" and the young boy is seen putting it over his head.
"If a teacher says, 'Weston you don't need your backpack let's get in the corner,'" Walton prompts her son.
To which he replies, "I say, 'No I need it, it's bulletproof.'"
Then, Walton asks the 5-year-old what he would do if the police are outside the door, but the shooter is in his classroom.
"I say, 'I'm here'," Weston replies with childlike enthusiasm.
Walton replies, "Absolutely not, you don't say a word. If the shooter is in there, you don't say a word, you stay absolutely silent."
Finally, Walton asks Weston what he would do if he got outside the building and the young boy replied he would run home.
"You run as far away from the school as you can go," Walton told him. "Mom will find you."
Walton told TODAY Parents that on the heels of the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, it was important to her that Weston be prepared.
"I wanted him to be prepared and have somewhat of an idea of what to do if the situation should ever arise," she said.
The mom of two shared that while watching the heartbreaking events unfold on television in May, Weston had questions.
"He could see what was going on in Texas and, as kids do, he had questions, so I answered his questions (as best as) I could and then told him about my school experience," Walton said, adding she tried to use words a 5-year-old could understand without going into too much detail.
When Walton shared the video, which has garnered nearly seven million views at time of publication, she knew it "may" get some attention.
"I didn’t expect it to get as much as it did," Walton said. "I was just trying to show what we do at home and share a product that I recommended, and maybe inspire other parents to break the ice to have this important talk."
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