11-Year-Old Uvalde Survivor Tells Her Story to Congress

'I don't feel safe at school,' says Miah Cerrillo
By John Johnson,  Newser Staff
Posted Jun 8, 2022 11:00 AM CDT

A House panel is hearing this week from people affected by the mass shootings in Uvalde and Buffalo, and testimony on Wednesday drew particular attention—it came from an 11-year-old survivor of the Uvalde school shooting. In the prerecorded video, fourth grader Miah Cerrillo recalled how she and her classmates were watching a movie when their teacher got an email alert and went to lock the door, per the New York Times. The teacher "made eye contact" with the gunman just outside the door and told the students to "go hide" moments before he got inside.

"He shot my friend that was next to me," Miah said, adding that she rubbed her friend's blood over herself to play dead. Asked what she would like to see happen next, Miah said better security. When asked if she feels safe at school, she shook her head. "I don't want it to happen again," she said, per USA Today. But when asked if she thought it would, she nodded. In his own testimony, Miah's father, Miguel Cerrillo, said his daughter is "not the same little girl" anymore, per CNN. "I wish something will change not only for our kids, but every single kid in the world because schools are not safe anymore," he said. "Something needs to really change." (More Uvalde mass shooting stories.)

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