Bus of kindergartners cheer for 'fastest kid alive' as he sprints home
A heartwarming moment of a bus filled with kindergartners cheering their hearts out for the "fastest kid alive" as he sprinted toward his home has gone viral on TikTok.
In the video, 5-year-old Xavier, who is a student at Carencro Bob Lilly Elementary School in Louisiana, can be seen in high spirits after his school bus arrived at his stop before he sped away. His friends showed support by waiting in the bus while chanting his name until he reached his destination.
"Xavier is a Kindergarten student that wants to be the fasted [sic] kid alive!" wrote Xavier's school bus driver, Chad Desormeaux, in the caption. "Every day on our bus. When I get to his stop, all the kids run to one side of the bus to cheer him on!"
Speaking to "Good Morning America," Desormeaux said he noticed the moment with the kids on the bus one afternoon when riding with another driver who drove the bus before he took over as a substitute.
After witnessing the situation, he realized he had to capture it on camera before sharing the video on his TikTok account which has now garnered over 5 million views.
"As soon as we got to Xavier's stop, all the kids went from one side of the bus to the other side of the bus," he said. "And all you can hear was windows going down on the bus. And he just takes off running and they're just hooting and hollering and screaming and cheering for him…."
"And as soon as I saw it the first time I knew I was gonna have to get it on video," he continued.
Since Xavier is still in kindergarten and as a bus driver, Desormeaux said it is his responsibility to make sure "somebody has to be there for him until he gets home" because there are times that Xavier's mom, Tiffany, works some late-night shifts.
"We just wait for him to get to the driveway…. the kids made it a game where let's see how fast he can run to get there. And the kids made it a game to cheer him on to make him go faster," Desormeaux said, adding that Xavier is a "great kid" and "always smiling."
During an interview with "GMA," Xavier's mom Tiffany discussed the attention that her son has been getting from the video, saying, "I just counted it as a blessing."
"He's very outgoing," she said of his son. "He's only five. But sometimes he acts like an old man. He is a sweetheart."
Tiffany said the occasion with the kids on the school bus is "an everyday thing."
"They get on one side of the bus and they scream Xavier's name,' Go, Xavier, go!' That's all we hear and that's how we know they [are] outside," she said. "The bus from school is around the corner."
Since posting the video, Desormeaux said most of the responses he received from the public have been positive.
"For the most part, which is really what I like about the video, it's not so much focused on who was recording, it's actually focused on Xavier, which was the biggest thing and so it's been positive feedback," he said.
Sharing his favorite part of being a school bus driver, Desormeaux explained, "It's just being around that environment, it grounds you quickly."
"You know, we get caught up in our careers and whatever else we got going and that gives me a chance to step back and say, 'see the different side of this world' and like I always say it's 'a child's innocence is irreplaceable' and you can't help but cheer you up," he said.
Reaffirming his ambition as a runner, Xavier told "GMA" what he wanted to be growing up: "I want to be the fastest kid in the world."
