When Rachel Dix, a 10-year-old at Travis Elementary School in Houston, TX, learned of the horrific school shooting in Uvalde that took the lives of 21 people – including 19 children – she couldn’t believe a mass shooting was possible in a place where students were supposed to feel safe.
So when her mother, Jill Hirschenfang, suggested they attend a rally over the Memorial Day weekend to protest the National Rifle Association convention in downtown Houston, she had no hesitation.
While former President Donald Trump addressed 70,000 gun enthusiasts inside the George R. Brown convention center, outside there were thousands of protestors – many of them children – who gathered across the street with home-made posters, passionate voices and a sense of outrage.
“This event definitely felt more risky than the ones we’ve been to before,” Hirschenfang told Know Your Value of the rally last Friday. The mom of two brought Rachel and her son, Dayton, 12, to the event, which was in part led by Democratic gubernatorial candidate Beto O’Rourke. “But [she] was impressed with people standing shoulder-to-shoulder and felt like she was a part of something.”
For families across the country – particularly in Texas where gun rights were expanded – the tragedy has hit too close to home. Many children are afraid to go to school. Parents and caregivers are left to explain how tragedies like these could still happen. As a mom with a daughter the same age as the Uvalde shooting victims, Hirschenfang had no choice but to go and empower her kids to speak up for them.
“Soon after we got there, a member of Beto [O’Rourke’s] campaign asked Rachel if she’d want to come on stage with 18 other kids to represent the children in Uvalde,” she said. Her daughter said yes and stood alongside other children, each wearing photos with the names of the Uvalde shooting victims around their necks.
Rachel wore a picture of Eliahana Cruz Torres, who died in her Uvalde classroom. “Putting this [photo] around her neck was very hard for me to do,” Hirschenfang recalled. “This could have been any of us and to know that I was literally putting this on her to represent someone that had been killed that’s her age … it’s still hard for me to even think about today.”
But the responsibility proved empowering for Rachel, who caught the attention of Rep. Sheila Jackson Lee, D-Texas. “[She] asked if I could stand with her while she spoke on stage,” Rachel told Know Your Value. “She said ‘I’m one of the people who makes laws, I flew here from Washington, D.C. … to help pass laws to protect children like you from guns.’”
“The Congresswoman truly looked Rachel in the eyes and connecting with her,” Hirschenfang said. “Both my kids were proud to be part of the solution.”
‘Don’t let our kids become immune to this’
Back in the crowd, Christine Wilkerson looked up and saw Rachel standing with O’Rourke and Rep. Jackson Lee on the stage. She had just come from a nearby hospital where her 104-year-old grandmother was being treated.
“My grandmother – Mary Elizabeth Donovan – is the person who taught me about activism growing up,” Wilkerson told Know Your Value. “She was always going to some protest or rally, bringing her children along … My mother [who was at the hospital with me] said you need to go to that protest, she would want you to go – so I left.”
Wilkerson, a friend of Hirschenfang, knew Rachel would attend the rally but didn’t expect to see her alongside the speakers. “Rachel was incredibly brave and it was really powerful to see those children up there,” she said. “I feel like we’re on the precipice of change, and there were people there of all ages, kids of all backgrounds. It often feels like this is the women, the moms behind it, but everyone was there and it felt really good.”
But for the mother of three, achieving change means taking action beyond the headlines. “Be persistent about calling and writing our leaders, encourage your children do so, show up to planned events, normalize the conversation with your kids in a way that doesn’t instill fear,” she said. “We can’t let anyone get immune to [gun violence], we can’t let our kids become immune to it because it’s not going to stop … you need to get mad every time.”
After the rally Wilkerson returned to the hospital. Her grandmother passed away the next morning.
‘Walls can only do so much’
Elsewhere at the Friday rally, Christina DeHaven helped her two children, Jack, 11, and Annie, 9, navigate the event. They had participated in a March for Our Lives protest a few years earlier and were eager to attend.
“I think they both felt empowered at a special moment in history, they were there when people were trying to enact some sort of change,” DeHaven told Know Your Value. “I feel like it’s given them an awareness of what is needed in the world, and they want to be that change, they want to be a part of it.” Her 5th grader, Jack, who also attends Travis Elementary along with his sister, felt inspired seeing so many other young people there. “That’s important because kids are kind of the main subject right now with schools and the threat of gun violence there,” he told Know Your Value. “At school, we keep all the doors locked and practice [active shooter] drills to keep us safe, but the drills are just hiding behind a desk and I don’t think that’s enough.” “Walls can only do so much,” he added. “Walls can’t always keep out the enemy. We need actual gun reform.” On another side of town, Nicole Santos, a 5th grade teacher with the Houston Independent School District, spent the week processing the tragedy, reassuring her students they were safe in her classroom and comforting her own two children, Sophia, 12, and Luca, 7. Like many teachers, Santos has found herself on the front-lines of the gun debate at school and at home. “My job is not just to teach the kids but to keep them safe,” she told Know Your Value. “I am expected to be on every second of every day, teach my lessons and provide a safe, stable environment for a group of kids, some of which may not have a stable environment at home.” For Santos the answer is not arming educators. “I’m not that teacher that’s going to carry a gun – I don’t think that there’s any safety in it for the kids or myself.” She and her family attended the second day of protests on Saturday at the convention center. “There was a point where it got a little bit scary,” she said. “There was a lot of interesting vocabulary being shouted at us … as a group [the Proud Boys] tried to come over across the street and the police actually escorted them away.” Santos prepared her kids for what they might see or hear, but emphasized they were there to use their power of speech in a positive way. “I was nervous, but I had something to say,” Santos’ 6th grader, Sophia, told Know Your Value about her first time at a protest. “This shouldn’t be happening more than once. Now I know there are multiple people around me that are fighting for the same things that we all want and won’t stop fighting until we get the answer we need.” As a parent, that’s become Santos’ priority. “If I take away anything it’s having taught my kids that they have a responsibility to make their voices heard and collectively, make change,” she said.
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