Uvalde Student, 11, Pleads To Congress For 'Security'

Miah Cerrillo, a fourth-grade Uvalde, Tx., student who smeared a dead classmate’s blood on herself to avoid being targeted by the gunman who killed 19 students and two teachers, described the nightmarish attack in a video played before members of Congress on Wednesday. Miah, 11, was among several people who testified at the hearing on gun violence, the New York Times reports. In the video, she said she had been watching a movie with her classmates when one of her teachers got an email and moved to lock the door. The teacher told students, “Go hide,” she said, and they hid behind backpacks and their teacher’s desk. “He shot my friend that was next to me,” Miah said. “And I thought he would come back to the room.” In the video, she was asked what she wanted to result from the mass shooting. “To have security,” she told members of Congress. She shook her head when she was asked if she felt safe at school. “I don’t want it to happen again.” Her father, Miguel Cerrillo, testified in Washington, saying that Miah had changed since the shooting. He pleaded for some kind of change to protect children in school. “I came because I could’ve lost my baby girl,” Cerrillo said through tears. “And she’s not the same little girl that I used to play with and run with and do everything, because she was Daddy’s little girl.” He added, “I wish something would change,. Not only for our kids, but every single kid in the world, because schools are not safe anymore.”