CHILD WATCH

By: Marian Wright Edelman President of the Children's Defense Fund

“You either care about protecting kids or you don’t”

“As we sat at our desks working on our computers, we began to hear loud pops…I thought I was going to die. As I laid there, I begged God to please make it fast… My classmates pulled me behind a filing cabinet where I called my mom and my dad and said what I thought would be my last goodbyes. I told them how much I loved them, and asked that they please tell my brothers the same. I was so petrified that I began hyperventilating. My classmates had to cover my face so the shooter wouldn’t hear my cries and come back. I will never forget that day. What I saw. What I did. What I experienced. What happened to my classmates.”

“I was sitting and my professor was lecturing, and then I heard either three or four—I could hear gunshots directly behind my head, and I could see the smoke… Immediately, I dropped to the floor with all my classmates, and someone was yelling that there was a shooter and everybody needed to get down on the ground. And at that moment I thought that I was going to die. I was so scared. I didn’t cry, which is surprising for me. I just kind of kept quiet, and I called my mom…My classmates in the back of the classroom started to scream for help, and my other classmates jumped into action, trying to help everyone…I will never forget the screams of my classmates, because they were screaming in pain for help.”

The first quote is from testimony 17-year-old high school senior Aalayah Eastmond gave before Congress as she described how she survived the mass shooting that killed 17 of her classmates,