The Girl Scouts of Southwest Texas honored 10-year-old Amerie Jo Garza, 10, with “one of the highest honors in Girl Scouting” following her death in the Uvalde shooting.
Garza, who was among 19 students killed in their fourth-grade classroom, posthumously received The Bronze Cross for “saving or attempting to save life at the risk of the Girl Scout’s own life,” the organization said in a Tweet on Tuesday, the same day Amerie was buried.
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The Girl Scouts of Southwest Texas said Amerie “did all she could to save the lives of her classmates and teachers.”
The organization said they also paid tribute to Amerie with a Presentation of Colors at her funeral.
Her stepfather, Angel Garza, told the Associated Press that Amerie’s friend told him that Amerie had tried to call the police before she was shot.
Last week, Girl Scouts of the USA posthumously bestowed upon Amerie Jo Garza, 10, of Uvalde, Texas, one of the highest honors in Girl Scouting: the Bronze Cross. The Bronze Cross is awarded for saving or attempting to save life at the risk of the Girl Scout’s own life. 1/3 pic.twitter.com/bFjz0I4awa
— Girl Scouts of Southwest Texas (@girlscoutsswtx) May 31, 2022
In the shooting on Tuesday, May 24, an 18-year-old gunman stormed Robb Elementary School and barricaded himself inside the classroom for more than an hour. He also killed the students’ teachers, Irma Garcia and Eva Mireles.
Amerie was the first to be buried on Tuesday, exactly three weeks after she celebrated her 10th birthday.
Amerie’s family described her as kind but sassy, a little diva with a heart of gold, according to the Texas Tribune.
Hours before she died, she received the A-B honor roll. She was creative, her family said, and she dreamed of becoming an art teacher.
“She was very creative,” her grandmother Dora Mendoza told the AP. “She was my baby. Whenever she saw flowers she would draw them.”
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