Boy, 12, writes goodbye letters to family during school lockdown
A 12-year-old boy wrote heartfelt goodbye letters to his family because he thought he was going to die during a school lockdown.
The boy’s school – Governor’s Village STEM Academy in Charlotte, North Carolina – went into an unexpected lockdown last week, causing students to fear for their lives.
Ajani Dartiguenave is a student in the same district as a fatal North Carolina school shooting just a few weeks ago.
A number of scares followed, in which guns were found at three other schools in the area.
When Claudia Charles picked her son up on Friday last week, she had no idea about what had taken place at school that day, telling Yahoo Lifestyle parents weren’t informed of a lockdown.
“He was telling his siblings what happened while I was on the phone with a client. My six-year-old caught my attention when she said, ‘Mum, if I die at school I want you to know I love you’,” Ms Charles explained.
“My oldest son Ajani then began to become upset and told me, ‘Mum, we had a lock down, a real lock down today. I thought I was going to die. People were crying and praying.'”
Ajani went on to tell his mother that he wrote two letters to his family during the frightening moments.
The 12-year-old then read them aloud to his mum and siblings. Ms Charles explained the experience of listening to her son read the letters as “heartbreaking”, and said she “felt helpless.”
“He even wrote our address on the top of the letter in case they had to figure out who wrote it,” Ms Charles continued.
“When he and his friends saw each other after the lockdown, they began expressing to each other that they did not think they would see each other again.”
A spokesperson for the school confirmed to Yahoo Lifestyle “Governor’s Village STEM Academy had a limited outdoor activity lockdown on November 9”.
“The students were not allowed to go outside, however student movement inside of the building such as class changes, lunch activities and all instruction continued as usual,” the spokesperson said.
It added counseling was available to students upon request.
Ms Charles maintains she has yet to hear anything from the school about the incident or how to ease her child’s anxiety about it.
“I’m mad the school has not responded to the local news and to parents about what took place and how they will provide support to students that were traumatised by these events,” Ms Charles said.
