Sarah Huckabee Sanders faced her toughest question of the day at the White House from the youngest journalist in the room: a 13-year-old reporter for TIME for Kids. “One thing that affects my and other students’ mental health is the worry about the fact that we or our friends could get shot at school,” said Benje Choucroun, who was at the White House for a sports and fitness event later in the afternoon. “Specifically, can you tell me what the Administration has done and will do to prevent these senseless tragedies?” Sanders became visibly emotional when she responded to the young questioner. “I think that as a kid and certainly as a parent there is nothing that could be more terrifying for a kid to go to school and not feel safe,” she said, apparently fighting back tears. Watch the whole exchange above. Get our Politics Newsletter. The headlines out of Washington never seem to slow. Subscribe to The D.C. Brief to make sense of what matters most. 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Write to Tessa Berenson at tessa.berenson@time.com.<doc-sep>So detached from reality, so devoid of humanity is the current White House administration that when a member of its staff briefly displays something resembling an empathetic, emotional response, it's headline news. On Wednesday, Sarah Huckabee Sanders was momentarily flummoxed when 13-year-old Bay Area student Benje Choucroun asked a question about gun violence. The young Time for Kids reporter had been present for White House Sports and Fitness Day when he piped up during a press briefing. Before he spoke, Sanders pointed to her "young colleague in the back" and quipped, “Hopefully these aren’t as tough as bring-your-kid-to-work-day questions." She did not get the softball she'd expected. Reading from his notes, Choucroun came in prepared. "At my school, we recently had a lockdown drill,” the boy said. “One thing that affects mine and others’ mental health is the worry that we or our friends could get shot at school. Specifically, can you tell me what the administration has done and will do to prevent these senseless tragedies?" Lesson number one: Do not. Underestimate. Our kids. What happened next appears to have surprised Sanders herself. She had remained composed while he posed his question, and by the end of her response she had resumed her usual robot-like demeanor. But somewhere in the middle, the mother of three cracked a little. Sanders told him, "I think that as a kid and certainly as a parent, there is nothing more terrifying" — and it was right there, at that word "terrifying," that her voice began to break. She continued, "than for a kid to go to school and not feel safe, so I'm sorry that you feel that way." But then the more familiar, evasive Sanders began to assert her dominance again. "This administration takes it seriously," she said, "and the school safety commission that the president convened is meeting this week, again, an official meeting, to discuss the best ways forward and how we can do every single thing within our power to protect kids within our schools and to make them feel safe and to make their parents feel good about dropping them off." She did not say the word "guns." She did not say anything, in fact, about a tangible, effective plan of action to reduce school violence. She didn't mention the White House's own bonkerballs March statement on "Hardening Our Schools" with initiatives "to enable schools to partner with State and local law enforcement to provide firearms training for school personnel" and to "support the transition of military veterans and retired law enforcement into new careers in education." What child wouldn't feel safer reading that? Especially undocumented or minority children, who certainly wouldn't have anything to fear from armed adults with a background in law enforcement? The White House also proposes a Federal Commission on School Safety chaired by Secretary Betsy DeVos to explore topics like "entertainment rating systems and youth consumption of violent entertainment." Interestingly, even the proposed "expansion and reform of mental health programs" singles out ways to "identify and treat individuals who may be a threat to themselves or others" without an apparent thought to the generation of traumatized children and teenagers whose mental health, as Choucroun understands, is being eroded by the stress of lockdown drills and the threat of mass violence. When you have a commander-in-chief who speaks at an NRA convention after a horror like Parkland, one who tweeted earlier this month that "Democrats and liberals in Congress want to disarm law-abiding Americans," no, you don't expect anything stronger than an occasional "thoughts and prayers" to come out of his official mouthpiece. Sanders, who may or not know how to correctly hold a shotgun, has certainly not gone out of her way to behave like a person who knows how to respond to reasonable outpourings of grief and fear. In a February press briefing, she spent her time trying to defend her boss's bizarre assertion that the FBI failed to stop the Parkland shooter because it was focused on the Russia investigation. She grumpily told reporters, "He's making the point that we would like our FBI agencies to not be focused on something that is clearly a hoax in terms of investigating the campaign." Which is, sure, what you say in your first briefing after 17 young lives are snuffed out. It's true that this administration already feels longer than and almost as bad as the entire run of "Full House," but reach back into your mind to a time when our leadership showed any emotion other than petulance. Remember Joe Biden dabbing his eyes as his BFF Barack awarded him the Presidential Medal of Honor? Or his intimate conversation about grief and loss to the families of fallen military service people? It was comforting, wasn't it? Barack Obama cried all the damn time when he was president — even if the right often mocked him for it. He cried when he was re-elected, thanking his support team. He cried, "as a parent," after Sandy Hook, telling America, "They had their entire lives ahead of them…. I can only hope it helps for you to know that you're not alone in your grief. We have wept with you, we've pulled our children tight." He cried at the introduction of new gun laws. He cried with pride in his wife, and he cried dropping his daughter off at college. Humans cry. They cry in sadness and fear and gratitude and love. They definitely go all out with the waterworks when it comes to their kids. They don't call other humans "animals" and they don't show more outrage over "Kathy Griffin going on a profane rant against the President on 'The View'" than they do over nearly 5,000 dead hurricane victims, many of them children. They don't coolly assert that upholding the Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals is "good news for smuggling organizations and criminal networks." I'm sure that Sanders sincerely loves her children, and that the thought of her own going off to school and not feeling safe triggered a genuine moment of maternal identification. I'm sure Ivanka and Melania love their kids too.<doc-sep>Ms. Sanders, her voice breaking at times, responded: “I think that as a kid, and certainly as a parent, there is nothing that could be more terrifying for a kid to go to school and not feel safe. So I’m sorry that you feel that way.” She continued: “This administration takes it seriously, and the school safety commission that the president convened is meeting this week again, an official meeting, to discuss the best ways forward and how we can do every single thing within our power to protect kids in our schools, and to make them feel safe and make their parents feel good about dropping them off.” President Trump has called for action after some high-profile school shootings, but little has come of it beyond the creation of the commission, which is overseen by Betsy DeVos, the education secretary. After a shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., killed 17 people in February, Mr. Trump said he would look at stricter background checks and raising the minimum age for buying assault weapons. He also suggested arming teachers, giving them a bonus to carry guns. Those proposals have gone nowhere. He later said on Twitter that there was “not much political support (to put it mildly)” on raising the minimum age.<doc-sep>"One thing that affects my and other students' mental health is the worry about the fact that we or our friends could get shot at school," the boy said. "Specifically, can you tell me what the administration has done and will do to prevent these senseless tragedies?"<doc-sep>
White House Press Secretary Sarah Huckabee Sanders showed a softer side of herself when a boy asked during a press conference Wednesday what the Trump administration was doing to keep him safe from school shootings. The boy, 13-year-old Benje Choucroun and a reporter for Time for Kids, according to Time, told Sanders that his campus recently had a lockdown drill and that he was worried. “One thing that affects my and other students’ mental health is the worry about the fact that we or our friends could get shot at school,” said Choucroun, who shortly after participated in the White House’s Sports and Fitness Day. “Specifically, can you tell me what the administration has done and will do to prevent these senseless tragedies?” he asked. Trending: Donald Trump's Tweets: Growing Majority of Americans Disapprove of President's Outbursts, New Poll Finds Sanders, who listened intently, said, “I think that as a kid and certainly as parent, there is nothing that could be more terrifying than for a kid to go to school and not feel safe, so I’m sorry that you feel that way,” with her voice cracking up. “This administration takes it seriously,” Sanders continued, “And the school safety commission that the president convened is meeting this week again, an official meeting, to discuss the best way forward and how we can do every single thing within our power to protect kids in our schools and to make them feel safe and their parents feel good about dropping them off.” Don't miss: Was Stormy Daniels's Lawyer Michael Avenatti 'Thrown Out' of Court? Giuliani Spreads False Claim About Cohen Case Sanders, who has three young children, earlier in the press conference said that President Donald Trump on Thursday will meet with the families of victims of the most recent school massacre, less than two weeks ago in Santa Fe, Texas, which led to 10 deaths. The president will “personally offer his condolences and support” in Houston, Sanders said. Story continues Choucroun is from California, according to CNN. This story has been updated with the identity of the boy who asked Sanders the question and more information from the press conference. This article was first written by Newsweek More from Newsweek