Kids in Dallas, Texas were sent home from school with an unusual item in their backpacks, reported The Guardian: a book that features Winnie-the-Pooh explaining how to survive school shootings.
"Parents and teachers in the Dallas area have expressed alarm and concern that the Stay Safe book, produced by a law enforcement consulting firm in Houston, has been sent home in the backpacks of children in pre-kindergarten and elementary classes," reported Ed Pilkington. "The book features the honey-loving bear created by AA Milne and illustrator EH Shepard instructing kids about how to react to a mass shooting. "
"The subtitle to the Stay Safe book is: 'If there is danger, let Winnie-the-Pooh and his Crew show you what to do: Run Hide Fight,'" said the report. "Run, hide, fight are the tactics advised by the FBI 'should the unthinkable occur.' Inside pages of the book, featuring other characters from the Hundred Acre Wood, tell kids: 'If it is safe to get away, we should RUN like Rabbit instead of stay … If danger is near, do not fear, HIDE like Pooh does until the police appear.' The 'hide' page has a drawing of Pooh burying his head in a pot of honey."
The next page shows Kanga and Roo wearing boxing gloves, with the message, “If danger finds us, don’t stay, run away. If we can’t get away, we have to FIGHT with all our might.”
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The book is not an official use of the character; in 2022, Winnie-the-Pooh entered the public domain, allowing third parties to use him in their own works.
The image of mass shootings has been a raging debate in Texas ever since the slaughter of elementary schoolers in Uvalde. Republicans in charge of the state have pushed for hardening schools with new security features and recently closed a loophole in state law that prevented some mental health information from being recorded in the national background check system; however, any debate over more gun substantive reforms, like fully universal background checks, restrictions on military-style semiautomatic rifles, or a reversal of the state's recently-enacted permitless carry law, appears dead for the foreseeable future.
