Miah Cerrillo, a fourth grade student who survived the shooting at her Uvalde, Texas, elementary school last month, delivered video testimony Wednesday to the House Committee on Oversight and Reform about how she survived the massacre and told lawmakers she no longer feels safe going to school.
GROUP OF HOUSE DEMOCRATS BOYCOTT BIPARTISAN MOMENT OF SILENCE FOR UVALDE VICTIMS
In a video message, Cerrillo, 11, said she survived the shooting at Robb Elementary School by covering herself in the blood of a slain classmate in an effort to hide from the shooter by playing dead.
BREAKING: Student Miah Cerrillo describes witnessing the Uvalde gunman shooting her teacher and classmates, and smearing herself with blood to play dead.
Asked if she thinks it will happen again, she nods.
Watch her entire video testimony: https://t.co/84GN8wkuga pic.twitter.com/6jxXYjBeu6
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Cerrillo said her class was watching a movie when her teacher got an email.
“She went to go lock the door, and he was in the hallway,” Cerrillo said.
Cerillo said after the shooter shot her teacher and classmates, she stayed quiet, smeared in her classmate’s blood, until she was able to get her teacher’s phone and call 911.
Cerillo said she wants “security” at school. Asked if she feels safe going to school by an off-camera speaker, Cerillo shook her head no, saying, “because I don’t want it to happen again.”
Originally scheduled to be in the hearing room in person, the committee said Wednesday that Cerillo, her family, and her pediatrician decided to have her speak by video instead and have her father address the hearing in person.
Miguel Cerrillo, Miah’s father, told the committee he was testifying before them because “I could have lost my baby girl.”
Uvalde school shooting survivor Miah Cerrillo’s father testifies at House hearing on gun violence: “Schools are not safe anymore. Something needs to really change.” https://t.co/kqG9tMAQQH pic.twitter.com/3UNS7M1A41
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“She is not the same little girl that I used to play with,” he said of what Miah experienced.
Miguel Cerrillo said that “something needs to really change” because “schools are not safe anymore.”
The shooting at Robb Elementary School left at least 19 children and two teachers dead, and it came shortly after another mass shooting in Buffalo, New York. The shootings prompted calls for Congress to respond legislatively to prevent such attacks.
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The House is scheduled to vote this week on legislation that proponents say will reduce gun violence, but that legislation faces difficult odds in the Senate, where Republicans are unlikely to support as broad a measure. Bipartisan negotiations on gun legislation continue in the Senate, where some Republicans have indicated they would support incentivizing states to pass red flag laws or enhancing background checks.
