KANSAS CITY, Mo. — Talking to kids about police brutality and the current protests can be difficult. But therapists say you shouldn’t ignore it.
“We saw what happened with Mr. Floyd. Is that going to still keep them alive?” Cecil Logan asked.
Cecil Logan has five kids, the young is 5-years-old. He’s already teaching them how to interact with police.
“We teach them that whenever you encounter the police, it’s always ‘Yes sir, no ma’am, no sir,” Logan said.
As communities across the country mourn the death of George Floyd, Logan is hoping his sons don’t become the next hashtag.
“They want to know what did he do, and I said, ‘Well, they said he used the $20 bill,'” Logan said. “Then my 9-year-old says, ‘It wasn’t even worth him dying,” Logan said.
The KC father said he had to have an honest conversation with his children after they pulled up the video of Floyd’s death of YouTube.
Social media makes it hard to unplug from videos, pictures and posts of Floyd’s death. Therapists say the images can traumatize kids.
“Anytime a child experiences something scary, through site, sound, touch, taste, that nervous system gets activated, and depending on the point of development, you’re always wiring for exceptions about the future,” therapist Drea Tuott said.
Logan’s hoping that his children can live in a world where they’re not afraid.
“As parents, we don’t have to be fearful when our children leave out the door,” Logan said.
