Shaquille O’Neal is making sure he puts a smile on children’s faces as they deal with the Coronavirus pandemic.
While schools around the country have closed to keep kids and staff safe from spreading and catching the virus, teachers have had to resort to online measures to have class with their students.
The retired NBA legend surprised a teacher and her first grade class at East Lake Elementary School while they were conducting class via FaceTime.
According to TMZ, Shaq is a family friend of a student and who attends the school. The teacher and students had no idea that his face would pop up during their FaceTime session. Shaq greeted the teacher who asked “Is that Shaq?” The students began freaking out and called their parents over to witness this moment.
In the video clip of the FaceTime session, you can see the excited parents and students with their phones recording everything. Shaq stayed on the FaceTime for a few minutes and spoke to all of the children in the chat before he got off the call.
In an interview with the Scoop B Radio podcast, Shaq talked about how he is handling the Coronavirus pandemic.
“I’m alright,” he said. “I’m just trying to stay socially distant. Here with the kids, just working out and hanging out, having a good time.”
The four-time championship winner also spoke about how this pandemic takes him back to his childhood days.
“It takes me back to a lot of issues,” he said. “However, growing up in the projects of Newark, New Jersey, being the son of a drill sergeant, being a great athlete…we’re always taught to persevere. So it’s nothing that can get me in panic mode. Because I learned a long time ago, you don’t worry about the problem. You learn about the solution. So we all know the problem. The solution: wash your hands, try to stay in social distance, follow the rules and everything should be okay. I can’t get in panic mode.”
Check out the video of Shaq surprising the first grade students below.