A Louisiana bus driver uploaded a video on TikTok of a young boy running that has since gone viral .
Five-year-old Xavier Booker lives outside Baton Rouge in a city named Carencro, USA Today reported. For safety reasons, the school district has a rule that if a child is under a certain age, bus drivers must wait until the student makes it to their home before pulling off to continue the route. After Chad Desormeaux overheard the kindergartner tell his peers he’s the “fastest kid alive,” he challenged him to show off his athletic skills, which turned into an everyday race from the school bus doors to his driveway, located only a few houses down.
“We sit there and we watch him run home that way to make sure he makes it into a driveway,” Desormeaux said in an interview with USA Today. “The faster he runs, the faster we can take off. It became a game.”
On Dec. 1, 2023, with the permission of Xavier’s parents, the bus operator recorded a video of him racing home. In the clip, Desormeaux asks, “Are you ready, Xavier?” to which he responds, “Uh huh.” Then before opening the the bus doors, he asks him to “give me a thumbs up.” He turns around with a big smile and raises his thumb. As soon as the bus doors opened, he took off down his street. The camera then turns to his classmates, who are looking out the windows of the school bus to see their schoolmate run as they root for him.