'I grabbed the blood and put it all over me'
That chilling sentence was delivered by fourth grader Miah Cerrillo yesterday in testimony before Congress on the mass school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, that left 19 children and two teachers dead. Speaking by video to members of the House oversight committee addressing gun violence, Miah described watching the gunman shoot her teacher in the head and then turn his weapon on a friend next to her. Miah used her dead teacher’s phone to call 911 for help, then covered herself in her friend's blood so the gunman would think she, too, was dead.
The dramatic testimony offered members of Congress — and the nation — a chance to hear firsthand from a child who lived through the shooting. More action is planned for Saturday, when survivors of the 2018 mass school shooting in Parkland, Florida, will return to Washington to rally — again — for firearms restrictions and policy changes they believe could thwart a gun violence rate unseen in any other developed nation.
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After Uvalde Shooting, Parkland Survivors Head up Huge Gun Safety Rally — Again
After the Parkland, Florida, school shooting four years ago, gun control advocates with the student-led March For Our Lives stormed the National Mall with a singular message: “Never again.” Now, in the wake of the mass school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, with American gun violence having gone unabated, the movement’s leaders, including David Hogg and X Gonzalez, are back for round two. On Saturday, they will return to Washington for a second rally, knowing full well the opposition they face. “I can only hope that the same sadness and fury that the country is feeling now, as we all did back in 2018, will fuel [change],” Jaclyn Corin told The 74’s Mark Keierleber.
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Uvalde Survivor: I Don’t Want It to Happen Again
A fourth grader who survived the mass shooting in Uvalde, Texas, was among the witnesses who testified before a House committee yesterday as emotional debates over gun reform continue in Congress. “I thought he was going to come back to the room, so I grabbed the blood and put it all over me,” Miah Cerrillo said in a recorded video. The dramatic testimony came as congressional Democrats push for tighter gun restrictions, while Republicans clamor for enhanced school security and mental health services. Linda Jacobson reports.
- WATCH: Stream yesterday’s hearing on Capitol Hill.
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Yes, Something is Different,
but Not Everything
As you probably noticed, we've done a lot to create a bold new look for The 74. But our fact-based journalism hasn't changed a bit. And neither has our need for your support. Please donate and become a member of The 74.
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Now is the Moment for a New Children’s Rights Movement
In the last three weeks, the country has witnessed babies hungry because of a shortage of infant formula and young students murdered in their elementary school. If you believe these atrocities will spark a comprehensive moral or policy response from elected leaders, says contributor Andrew Buher, you are mistaken. Here, he describes the dissonance between government leaders' purported commitment to children and kids' actual lives — and why now is the moment for a new, independent coalition focused exclusively on expanding and protecting children’s rights.
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Career Pivot: When Teachers Leave Their Classrooms to Launch Microschools
After the learning disruptions that impacted so many students through the pandemic, large numbers of parents looked to microschools as a more reliable alternative for their kids. Now, some teachers are seeing career opportunities there, too. Join us next week as The 74 and the Vela Education Fund present an online panel, “Into the Unknown: Why Teachers Leave the Classroom to Launch Nontraditional Education Programs,” featuring several educators who made that leap. The 74’s Linda Jacobson will moderate. Join us at 1 p.m. ET on Wednesday, June 15. Register for the Zoom right here.
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No More Regular Summer School: District Sending Indy K-8 Kids to Learning Labs
There are many ways to gauge the effectiveness of the joint summer learning program started last year by The Mind Trust and the United Way of Central Indiana. Student scores increased demonstrably, demand for spots this year is surging and teachers are eager to sign up for the five-week program. But maybe the clearest indication of Indy Summer Learning Labs's success is that Indianapolis Public Schools has decided to put all its K-8 students into this program, abandoning typical summer school. Wayne D'Orio takes a look.
Related:
- Ohio: Candidate for Governor Pushes Summer School to Account for COVID Learning Loss
- Oregon: Despite More Money Than Ever for Summer School to Aid With COVID Learning Loss, Teacher Shortages Threaten Programs
- Nationwide: Peering 30 Years into the Future, Economists See Lost Earnings for the Pandemic Generation of Students — But Summer School Might Help
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A Call to Bumrush
As educators who reimagine teaching and learning through the lens of hip-hop culture, authors sam seidel, Tony Simmons and Michael Lipset have been getting lip service, asked to conform to existing structures for too long. Divided, they’ve taken deals that allowed for change, but not for the raw power of what they’ve got. Now, they write in this excerpt from Hip-Hop Genius 2.0: Remixing High School Education, it’s time for a bumrush. What is a bumrush? It's young people using their numbers and their courage to overturn an unfair power structure in the name of justice. What Wu-Tang Club did to the music industry, young learners could do to the education system: Make it obsolete.
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Governor's Desire to Bar Undocumented Kids from School Echoes Failed Policies
Texas Gov. Greg Abbott last month talked of wanting to challenge Plyler v. Doe, the 1982 Supreme Court decision that barred states from refusing students based on their immigration status. The 74’s Jo Napolitano looks at the disastrous effects similar policies have had in Alabama and Arizona — on children, families and the economy. In Texas, research shows that every dollar spent on undocumented residents, including on education, yielded $1.21 in revenue, undermining Abbott’s argument of a financial drain. It’s unclear if he’ll change tactics after the mass shooting in Uvalde, which took the lives of mostly Hispanic children, but a 2019 mass killing in El Paso that targeted Latinos did little to slow his anti-immigration measures.
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