The teacher added that she was troubled by the distribution of a Winnie-the-Pooh book at a time when Republican politicians in Texas were loosening gun laws. “I found it extremely disturbing, and was very uncomfortable with the whole contents of the book,” the teacher said, requesting anonymity. She had been given a stack of copies, she said, to give to each child in her class. The move came on the week of the first anniversary of Uvalde, the mass shooting in a Texas elementary school in which 19 children and two teachers were killed.Ī teacher from a Dallas elementary school of about 500 students told the Guardian she found the book “terribly disturbing”. The book was given to children in Dallas-area schools on Monday without discussion or comment either with teachers or the families who received it. If we can’t get away, we have to FIGHT with all our might.” The text says: “If danger finds us, don’t stay, run away. On the following page, Kanga and baby Roo are shown wearing boxing gloves. The “hide” page has a drawing of Pooh burying his head in a pot of honey. 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.” Run, hide, fight are the tactics advised by the FBI “should the unthinkable occur”. 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.” It is not an official production, Winnie-the-Pooh has been in the public domain in the US since 1 January 2022.

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.

Milne when we were very young