As thousands of Kansas City children head back to the classroom this month, some elementary students will find something new in the curriculum. It's a coloring book that is designed to address some of the heavy issues they've faced in the past year, specifically COVID-19."This is sort of the representation of the coronavirus with the world," said Kathy Carver, president of KC Regional Simulation Alliance.The creators of the coloring book want children to better understand the pandemic on their level. To understand that it's a health issue around the world, not just here."They hear about what, you know, is on the news or with their parents talking about. Maybe they don't understand so this was a way for them to also be able to share some of maybe the feelings that they have and to learn a little bit about COVID-19 and how to stay safe," Carver said.Carver heads up a group of local health educators at KCRSA. Normally they take their hands-on learning approach into the classroom. That stopped with the pandemic, so they decided a coloring book was one way to engage the children and a resource for teachers to spark discussion."They know their children. They know how to be able to implement it in their classroom and at what level, or you know, what conversations they want to really engage," Carver said.The coloring book also addresses cultural diversity. Another big topic of discussion this past year. Educators created the lessons. Students from the Kansas City Art Institute did the rest."The beauty is that you're going to see multiple students all sharing their artistic talent so you get culture, you get a flavor of how they also could represent everybody," Carver said.And an understanding of how everybody's in this together. More than 4,000 of the coloring books will be in Kansas City Public Schools on Monday.

A Kansas City, Missouri, man has returned from India where COVID-19 transmission is out of control.Seeing the news reports out of India in recent weeks paints a picture of a country in crisis. The deadly second wave of COVID-19 is spreading out of control.Deepak Kapoor's family is in New Delhi. He said he made the difficult decision to travel there from Kansas City."In India, where the health care system has broken down, the news of somebody being infected is almost like a death sentence that they are going to die," Kapoor said.Kapoor was vaccinated and tested before he went and stayed in his parents' flat his entire two-week stay. Still, he said that death was all around him. He said he heard the screams when the tenant upstairs stopped breathing."The ambulance came to take him to one hospital, there was no bed. Took him to the second hospital, there was no bed, and it took him to the third hospital. By the time he got there, he had passed away," Kapoor said.He said that the situation there is ten times worse than what we've seen reported. Social distancing is impossible. There's a shortage of vaccine, an overwhelmed medical system and the dead are being cremated in the streets.Now that he's back home, he said that he is dealing with the guilt of leaving his family behind. He said he calls them every day."I actually wanted to cry because, because I know they're going through such a hard time there," Kapoor said. "It was guilt. It was like, I'm leaving them back there in that situation, and I'm coming to a place, which is probably one of the best places to be right now in the world and leaving them in the place that's right now the worst place."Kapoor said that he's grateful for all the U.S. is doing to help. He said believes it will take years for the country to recover from this. He said he hopes that by taking every precaution his family will survive.