Terence Crutcher killing: Teacher describes Tulsa students' reaction to police shooting in powerful Facebook post

Rebecca Lee writes that boys have been asking what makes a 'big bad dude' as they grapple with questions about how the father of a pupil could be shot dead

Ms Lee said students were shocked, sad and angry - and were asking questions (AP)

A teacher in Tulsa has offered a heartbreaking account of how a police shooting is affecting pupils at the school attended by the victim's daughter.

Rebecca Lee describes in a Facebook post how she has tried to help students come to terms with the death of Terence Crutcher by offering a chance to express their grief as well as ask questions.

One question, asked by a teenage boy, cut to the centre of the issue: “What made him a ‘big bad dude’?”

It was a question in the minds of many pupils, according to Ms Lee, who said they all came to the conclusion that Crutcher's skin colour was a decisive factor in his death.

Ms Lee wrote on Facebook that she needed to “press pause”, read out an article of the police shooting to students and let them express their grief and ask questions.

“'Was it his height? His size—' I look at the boys in my circle, all former students of mine,” she wrote.

“They have grown inches since their first day in my class. Their voices have deepened. Their shoulders broadened. They all nod their heads in agreement at the student's last guess— 'The colour of his skin?’”

The officer who fatally shot Crutcher, Betty Shelby, has been arrested and charged with manslaughter after Tulsa police chief Chuck Jordan confirmed that Crutcher did not have a weapon.

The teacher wrote in the post, which has been shared more than 140,000 times, that students cried and hugged each other, and asked questions.

“Why did they have to kill him? Why were they afraid of him? Why does [student] have to live life without a father? What will she do at father daughter dances? Who will walk her down the aisle? Why did no one help him after he was shot? Hasn't this happened before? Can we write her cards? Can we protest?“

Older students, she said, aged between 13 and 14, were “angry” and “hardened”.

“Another student says, 'I used to read about this happening and think, oh that's sad, and then kind of forget about it. But this happened so close to home. It feels real now. I take 36th St N to and from school everyday. It happened right by my house.’”

In police footage, officer Shelby and her colleagues approached Crutcher as he stood by his car. She called for backup and waited for less than a minute before she discharged her weapon. The video of Crutcher’s body, lying limp and bloody on the road, went viral, sparking outrage and protests.

Ms Lee said the death and many other police shootings had not only affected students but had also created an “identity crisis” in all student of colour.

“I share this story, because while I could never capture the articulate things kids said or the raw emotions students shared today, my privilege requires that I speak.

“I ask that you read. I ask that you use whatever privilege or platform you have to speak. I ask that you put yourself in the shoes of black and brown children growing up in a world where they see videos of their classmate's father shot and bleeding in the street.

”I ask that you love and love hard.”