Thank you Senator Kennedy, Representative McCarthy, and Mrs. Brady. The National Education Association (NEA) commends the sponsors and is proud to offer the support of its 2.4 million members for key provisions of the Children's Gun Violence Prevention Act. As my colleagues have already referenced, the recent shootings at schools have deeply shaken us all. In many ways, the shootings are a desperate cry for help from our most troubled and lost youth. It is a cry that we, as a nation, can no longer afford to ignore. Children and teachers are being killed in senseless shootings.

In the past year, we have lost 14 children and 2 teachers to gunfire. While one of the teachers was a member of the National Education Association, all of the victims are part of our extended family.

Shannon Wright was the kind of teacher that any of us would have loved to have had. This public school teacher gave her life to protect her students. Miss Wright didn't think twice about shielding Emma Pittman. She didn't need to -- because she knew the parents of Jonesboro had entrusted their children to her. There are a lot of teachers out there like Miss Wright who would put the safety of their students before their own.

No one knows her dedication to the students of West Side Middle School better than the families of Shannon Wright and Emma Pittman. And no one understands Miss Wright's devotion to her students better than her sixth-grade class who finished this school year without being able to tell her how much she helped them get through the school term -- indeed survive. It was her devotion to her students that put her in the path