11-year-old Miah was in the Uvalde classroom on May 24 with her other classmates watching the Disney classic Lilo and Stitch. Her room was shared by two teachers, Eva Mireles and Irma Garcia.
Miah relates …
When the teachers received word a shooter was in the school, one teacher went to lock the door, but the shooter was already at the door, and shot out its window.
It all unfolded so quickly. The teacher backed away from the door, into the classroom, and the gunman followed.
The shooter made eye contact with the teacher and said "Goodnight," and then shot her. He then opened fire, shooting the other teacher and many of Miah's friends as she watched.
The bullets whizzed passed her, and that fragments ended up hitting her shoulders and head. (She was later treated at the hospital and released with fragment wounds; she told CNN that clumps of her hair are now falling out.)
Miah said that after shooting students in her class, the gunman went through a door, into an adjoining classroom.
She heard screams, and the sound of shots in that classroom. After the gunfire ceased, she claims the shooter started playing loud, "sad" music.
Miah found one of her dead teacher's phones, called 911, and simply told a dispatcher, "Please come ... we're in trouble."
Right after, Miah rubbed her friend's blood all over herself and played dead.
Miah said it felt like three hours that she lay there, and assumed, in that moment, the police were still on the way.
She said afterward, she overheard talk of police waiting outside the school.
As she recounted this part of the story to CNN, she started crying, saying she just didn't understand why they didn't come inside and rescue them.
(Chris Harris. “Girl Who Survived Texas School Shooting Played Dead by Rubbing Blood on Herself.” https://people.com/crime/texas-school-shooting-survivor-miah-cerrillo-played-dead/. People. May 27, 2022.)
The indescribable horror is all too real. I relate the story of this child because our nation needs to realize the gut-wrenching details of the massacre – children murdered and maimed for no reason. Those who lived through the nightmare will be forever scarred both physically and emotionally.
Once more we mourn the tremendous loss of a mass shooting. Will we, once more, simply excuse guns from the deadly equation and refuse to pass needed restrictions on firearms? I fear we will.
Firearms are the leading cause of death for American children, according to recently released data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
More than 5 deaths per 100,000 Americans between the ages of 1 and 19 were due to guns in 2020, the most recent year for which the CDC has data.
That number represents a nearly 30% increase in firearms deaths among children over 2019, according to an analysis of the data published in the New England Journal of Medicine. The increasing firearm-related mortality reflects a longer-term trend and shows that we continue to fail to protect our youth from a preventable cause of death.
(Evan Simko-Bednarski. “Guns now leading cause of death for American children, CDC says. New York Post. May 26, 2022.)
Insane motives, weapons of mass destruction, battlefield terror … instantaneous death. And now, the aftermath. How have we become a nation of such preventable carnage?
A Prayer For Miah
Please, all Americans, think of Miah Cerrillo and how she recounted her story of facing a very real monster inside her fourth grade classroom at Robb Elementary School. I assume some will call her “one of the lucky ones” and go about your day. However, I want you to consider her narrative, one like that of so many other survivors, and think about what she did to save her own life. Her teachers murdered and her cries for help largely ignored, Miah fought for her life, and thank God, she succeeded. How she did it is simply dreadful. Pray for Miah and all of the victims.
No child … NO CHILD … should have to face this trauma. Don't tell me “it's not the gun, but the person wielding the weapon.” Don't tell me “a criminal will use any other weapon to commit such a massacre.” Don't tell me “the Second Amendment confirms your right to keep and bear assault rifles.” Don't tell me “it's horrible but it can't be prevented with tighter restrictions.” I don't want to hear it. I've heard it every time the blood of innocents spill onto the killing fields in the land of the free and the home of the brave. Even shooting the killers with “a bigger gun” is not an acceptable answer. Gun advocates who ignore the problem of gun violence can go straight to hell. God damn you if the shoe fits.
The image of Miah rubbing the blood of her friend all over herself, then playing dead and calling for help on her dead teacher's phone should be seared into the memory of every caring adult in the nation – anti-gun people, pro-gun advocates, weapons manufacturers, politicians, everyone.
That blood came from innocent victims of the gun violence at Robb Elementary on May 24. You can trace the carnage to the shooter, his maniacal purpose, his insane purchase, and the unrelenting round after round of bullets he fired into the bodies of those he most certainly hated. With his bloodthirsty finger on the trigger, he satisfied his ungodly desire to reap untold havoc in Uvalde. And, of course, he died in the process.
The young murderer – just turned legal age himself – worshiped violence … and the AR-15 and the handgun and the body armor and the 375 rounds of ammunition he bought on May 18 – all birthday presents he lavished upon himself to enable his self-righteous massacre.
Tell me how to take the weapons out of the story. Tell me how to justify the shooter's right to own these guns whose only purpose is to end human life. And, explain away the the blood-lust so prevalent in the hateful hands of those who use these firearms to satisfy their “twisted and sacred” right to bear arms. I know many of you will say that the breakdown of the family and the loss of religion cause it all. Did you ever consider that the largely unfettered gun culture needs to own up to its role in gun violence?
If you are not willing to take actions to stop this cause of death, you will be content to let Uvalde and everything that happened there sink into yet another inky statistic of mass gun massacres. That cold, black ink effectively ignores the red blood shed in these horrible narratives – lifeblood sacrificed by so many children whose lives were taken by the violence of a gun.
The school district in Uvalde has opened an official account with First State Bank of Uvalde to support Robb Elementary families affected by the tragedy. People can send checks through the mail (payable to the "Robb School Memorial Fund") or donate money through Zelle to robbschoolmemorialfund@gmail.com. People can also donate by calling 830-356-2273.
Teachers Eva Mireles and Irma Garcia
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