Christianne Boudreau hesitantly recounts how her son became an ISIS militant.  Her voice filled with anger yet strong with purpose. Her son, who joined ISIS’s ranks in Syria was killed fighting alongside them more than a year ago. The process of Islamic radicalization is gradual and persuasive, but overall deadly.

“It’s so easy for them to get to our children, to access our children,” Boudreau said.

Her son, Damian Clairmont, converted to Islam because of a troubling high school experience in their home town of Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

Boudreau remembers his new religion enlightening her son and bringing him peace. She had no reason to suspect anything when her son left for Egypt to study Arabic.

In reality, the 22-year-old was in Syria fighting alongside ISIS militants. He was killed fighting near the Syrian city of Aleppo in January 2014.

“The way a lot of it happens is one main recruiter plants the ideology in their mind and the Internet reinforces that with the information that they can search up and other contacts that they can make easily online,” Boudreau said.

Her overall message is talk to your kids about ISIS before they do.

“We need to start arming ourselves with the knowledge, the awareness, the education, and to be able to deal with these issues and be able to speak with our children at an early age,” Boudreau said. “We do the same thing with sex education, with drugs, and this is just one more thing that our kids are faced with, a challenge.”

FSA Connection Questions

1. What is the main idea of the story?
2. What sentence best summarizes the story?
3. Do you agree with her logic?
4. What is the antonym of the word enlightening in the story?
5. Summarize the story in your own words.