Consider This from NPR - Still Reeling, Uvalde Goes Back To School

Episode Date: September 1, 2022

Students in Uvalde, Texas are going back to school for the first time since a gunman killed 19 students and two teachers at Robb Elementary School back in May. But parents and kids are still worried about security in the district — and some families are opting to homeschool instead of going back in-person.NPR's Juana Summers spent a week in Uvalde speaking with families about how the community is trying to move forward — and balance education with the need to keep students safe.In participating regions, you'll also hear a local news segment to help you make sense of what's going on in your community.Email us at [e-mail] more about sponsor message choices: podcastchoices.com/adchoicesNPR Privacy Policy

Support for NPR and the following message come from the Kauffman Foundation, providing access to opportunities that help people achieve financial stability, upward mobility, and economic prosperity, regardless of race, gender, or geography. Kauffman.org On the side of a cream-colored building in downtown Uvalde, Texas, artists projected the image of a smiling 10-year-old girl. It was a recent Sunday evening. Kimberly and Felix Rubio watched from across the street as the memorial took shape. Their daughter,

Lexi, was one of the 19 students killed in the mass shooting at Robb Elementary School here in May. The gunman also killed two teachers. I have been so like on pins and needles about like that it was everything was going to go smoothly that I almost didn't even want to tell anybody where it was until we're here today starting. As the small town continues to grieve, murals are going up on the walls of buildings downtown. The victims' faces are larger than life, surrounded by the things they loved and the words they spoke to their families. As the artists got back to work painting, Kimberly and Felix looked up at the image of Lexi smiling back at them. She's surrounded by colorful flowers and butterflies.

I'll see it when I run. I'll see it when I park here to go to work. It's a beautiful building. It's a beautiful building. You can see the tower behind. The next day, we visited the Rubios at their new home and were greeted by another image of Lexi smiling. Hi, how are you? Photos and a softball with Lexi's name written on it sit on a shelf right by the front door. I asked Felix and Kimberly to describe their daughter. Lexi was a quiet child, shy, smart, appreciative of life and anything that comes her way. Her athletic ability, we were just seeing what was coming about from her. Competitive. Competitive, yeah, very competitive. She wanted to be the best at everything, and she was because she put in so much hard work. You said she was athletic. What sports did she play? She did softball, basketball. Those were her two main sports.

And then I know volleyball. That was something she was looking forward to. We talked about how they've been coping and about the activism they've thrown themselves into since the shooting. And then we got to the thing that's on many minds in Uvalde right now. It's time to go back to school. And the Rubios have five other children. Are they going back in person? Oh, we have three that are going back in person, for sure. I think it means something to them to kind of go back to their routine to see their friends. And then our little one was also at Rob that day.

So we signed him up for virtual. We're still back and forth on whether we're going to send him to school. I don't know what his reaction will be. But virtual is definitely a possibility for him. You've talked about what your kids want, but how are you all feeling about kids heading back to school? I don't think we'll ever feel comfortable with our kids being anywhere that isn't inside my home. I think about that a lot because it's school right now, but they'll go off. I mean, parades, concerts, a grocery store, where are they safe?

Consider this. As the new school year begins, many families in Uvalde feel like they have to choose between their kids' education and their safety. We'll talk with parents and their children as the small Texas community tries to move forward after an unthinkable tragedy. From NPR, I'm Juana Summers. It's Thursday, September 1st. This message comes from WISE, the app for doing things in other currencies. Send, spend, or receive money internationally,

and always get the real-time mid-market exchange rate with no hidden fees. Download the WISE app today, or visit WISE.com. T's and C's apply. It's Consider This from NPR. A few weeks ago, the school district in Uvalde announced new safety measures for the upcoming year. Fences around each public school, new security cameras, dozens of Texas state troopers on campuses. But many families like the Rubios are still worried. I asked if any number of security upgrades could reassure them. I would say no, there's nothing you can do.

Yeah. I mean, because you say there's a heavy police presence, but there was a heavy police presence that day. So I don't know that even if there was a threat, I don't feel comfortable that they could handle it. But the Rubios will be sending their kids back to school in person, at least some of them. And they've done what they can to mitigate the risks, including moving to this new house. I mean, that's why we chose this house. It's by the junior high, the high school, FLOTUS. All of our kids will eventually be in this area.

So if something ever happens again, we thought, well, they can run home. So when we're looking for a place to live, location was priority. But not every family in Uvalde will be sending their kids back to school in person this year. At a recent community meeting, one local organizer left parents with this message. If you do not feel that your child is safe going to school in the fall, then do not send them. Some people in that room nodded in agreement. One of them was Tina Quintanilla-Taylor. She invited me, along with producers Janaki Mehta and Alejandra Marquez-Hance, to her home.

Hi. Hello. Hi. Hi. Tina is here. Tina's six-year-old son, Winston, met us at the door door and he was excited to introduce us to the family pets. We have two baby kitties and a big fat cat. As we talked, the cats, a puppy, and a big brown dog named Gypsy roamed the house.

And Tina was making her way through a big stack of papers on the coffee table. In fact, today I am looking at alternative schooling for Winston. It is hard to find because he does receive services like speech therapy and occupational therapy, so this would be something that I would have to pay for. Tina's still deciding where to send Winston, but her decision was more clear-cut for her daughter, who went to Rob last year. She's not going back to class in person. My name's Maylee Rose Taylor. I am nine years old, and I am in fourth grade. And you just started school for the year, right? Yes. Tell us about it.

How's it going? It's going pretty good. I only started school two days. Hours before the shooting last spring, Tina and Maylee had gone to a school awards ceremony. They were in the parking lot together when Rob went into lockdown. They both made it out safely, but Maylee lost some friends that day, which her mom brought up during our conversation. Rogelio Torres, he was on my bus and he loved Pokemon. You want to show them the drawing? Sure. After the shooting, she started drawing. I drew my bus. It's beautiful. So describe our Helio. How was he? He was happy a lot and we were best friends.

Maile doesn't feel safe going to school in person, at least not for now. Do you think you want to go back to school in a classroom one day? I don't know. Do you think it's safe for your friends to go to school? No. This year, Maile is enrolled in a homeschooling program called K-12. It has a virtual component in the mornings and self-guided study for the rest of the day. What's it like trying to do school with your brother at home running around with the dogs? He's normally in his room or in my mom's. Do you like your teacher? Yes, she's a really nice teacher. What kind of things do you all talk about? We're going to be doing activities and we're talking about science.

Almost everyone we spoke to in Uvalde shared their concerns about school security and safety. For my children to feel safe and for our voices to be heard, I feel that it's safe to say that we need a school and we need it now, like the day after the shooting, before the shooting. Rob Elementary has been shut down since the shooting. The district plans to demolish it and build a new campus. So families in Uvalde have been left weighing whether to do some kind of at-home learning or send their kids back to classrooms. The only problem with the virtual learning through the school district is that we had it available during COVID. My children did not learn anything, so they're very far behind already. And then this shooting happened. Sounds like it's really compounding for kids in this

community, trauma on top of trauma, these lost years to COVID and then losing their friends in a mass shooting. Yes, ma'am. It's been very difficult. Recovery is also painful. Just trying to get back to everyday life. She has not been the same since the shooting happened. It's like she grew up. You said that your son told you the other day that he wants to run away. Yes. So Winston told me the other day that he wanted to run away so that he could go to a different school. I mean, sometimes you feel like you want to pick up and go yourself, but where do you go? And then our roots were placed here. It's been very difficult. So yes, at the beginning of all this, we spoke about division in the community. You think we're divided now? We're probably more divided than we've ever been. Do you think that division can ever be healed?

No. So many families had families in leadership positions or on law enforcement positions that also lost part of their family. So the separation in the division is never going to be healed. There's always going to be a separation. I think it's changed a lot. Yuvaldi's sad. Yuvaldi's never been like this. That's Yuri DeLuna. She's homeschooling both of her sons, at least for this school year.

Everybody has different opinions and everything, but everybody's fighting for a different reason. I feel like the situation is just pushing us apart, dividing us. 12-year-old Emanuel and 11-year-old Eloy went to Flores Elementary last year, so they were not at Rob when the shooting happened. But Eloy had Irma Garcia and Eva Mireles as his fourth grade teachers when he used to attend Rob. They were the two teachers who were killed on May 24th. And Yuri says Eloy has changed. As you see, I have an air mattress. He's scared of windows. So his bed's high. So he won't sleep in his room. He thinks he'll get shot at. So he sleeps on the floor in the air mattress.

That seems to help. It has its days. Some days, Eloy covers the windows in their house with blankets. I don't know why. I don't know how a blanket's going to protect a bullet, but, you know, it's just whatever makes him feel comfortable. Yuri quit her job to help educate her sons. She used to manage a snow cone stand and restaurant. We've always been a two-income family.

It was kind of rocky, and my husband decided to put other applications. Luckily, he found a better-paying job. At first, Yuri had some worries about taking her sons out of the classroom. She didn't want them to miss out on social interaction. And they both have learning disabilities, so she was worried about losing individualized services at school. But now that the homeschooling program has started, she's feeling better about things.

I think we can manage the caseworker that Eloy had. She was amazing. She offered us extra counseling if the boys needed counseling. They opened their arms to us, you know. I feel really, really good about it. After their homeschool day ended, we went into Emmanuel's room to say hi to the boys. So much people. So much people, I know, I know, I'm sorry.

How are you? I'm Juana. Eloy was sitting in the middle of his brother's bed, hunched over a laptop. Emmanuel was sitting at his desk. It's the bedroom of a true video gamer. There's a big flat screen TV in the corner, animal crossing curtains,

a Super Mario bedspread. We all had some questions for them. Do you guys get along pretty well? It depends. It's like if one of us are grumpy, one of us are really hyper. What about you? What do you think, Emmanuel? Depends if I have a good sleep. We just wanted to talk to you a little bit about how the new school year is going.

I know you're only like two days in. Pretty good. It's just like, it's really fun because I just talk to other people who seems nice and the teachers are really nice. We just do really fun activities. Do you like this better than going to school in the classroom so far? Yeah, because there's no lockdowns. And I really like it because you could be in your room and also you can actually choose what you want to eat. Mom's food is better than school

food, am I right? Yes. Very much so. What are you most looking forward to this year? Learning to science, basically. Making little explosions. Yuri said that even though the homeschool program has been supportive, she wants this to be temporary. I honestly want them to go back. I want them to be social. I want them to experience everything I had, you know. Are there things that you would want to see or hear from the school district that would make you feel more confident in their abilities to educate your kids well and to keep them safe while they're at school? Right now at this moment, nothing they say would help anything. It's actions. They need to do what needs to be done and protect our kids. It's Consider This from NPR. I'm Juana Summers.