U.S. children learn ‘lockdown rhyme’ at school

It is intended to be sung to the ‘Twinkle, Twinkle’ tune

Georgy Cohen's post sparked heated conversations online about the appropriate way to prepare young children for the worst. Photo: Georgy Cohen/Twitter

The mother of a five-year-old girl in the U.S. shared a picture of a rhyme that teaches toddlers how to prepare for a mass shooting.

Georgy Cohen shared the picture of the rhyme on Twitter. Within 24 hours, there were over 18,000 retweets.

The “Lockdown” poem is intended to be sung to the tune of “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star” but there’s nothing cute or innocent about it,

The Boston Globe reported.

The limericks say: “Lockdown, Lockdown, Lock the Door/ Shut the lights off say no more/ Go behind the desk and hide/ Wait until it’s safe inside/ Lockdown, lockdown its all done/ Now its time to have some fun.”

Heated conversations

Ms. Cohen, whose daughter might attend the school, said: “This should not be hanging in my soon-to-be kindergartner’s classroom.” However, she also made it clear that she was not “angry” at the school.

However, her post sparked heated conversations online about the appropriate way to prepare young children for the worst.

Somerville Mayor Joseph Curtatone and Superintendent Mary Skipper released a joint statement to The Globe and said: “This is, unfortunately, the world we live in today.”

There were over 2,000 comments on Ms. Cohen’s original tweet. She said she was happy that it was eliciting such a reaction by people because “it’s important not to normalise school shootings”.