FILE - Connecticut Sun guard Yvonne Anderson, left, drives against New York Liberty forward Natasha Howard, right, in the second half during a WNBA basketball game, Tuesday, May 17, 2022, in New York. Yvonne Anderson understood that making a WNBA roster as an undrafted rookie was going to be tough and getting that chance a decade after she left college would be even tougher. (AP Photo/John Minchillo, File)
Vice President Kamala Harris speaks at a memorial service for Ruth Whitfield, a victim of the Buffalo supermarket shooting, at Mt. Olive Baptist Church on Saturday in Buffalo, N.Y. — AP Photo/Patrick Semansky
Vice President Kamala Harris speaks alongside the Rev. Al Sharpton during a memorial service for Ruth Whitfield, a victim of the Buffalo supermarket shooting. — AP Photo/Patrick Semansky
A mourner embraces Angela Crawley, left, daughter of Ruth Whitfield, a victim of the Buffalo supermarket shooting, before a memorial service at Mt. Olive Baptist Church with Vice President Kamala Harris in attendance. — AP Photo/Patrick Semansky
Vice President Kamala Harris speaks with Robin Harris, daughter of Ruth Whitfield, a victim of the Buffalo supermarket shooting, during a memorial service. — AP Photo/Patrick Semansky
BUFFALO, N.Y. — Mourners laid to rest the last of 10 Black people killed in a racist attack at a Buffalo supermarket with a service on Saturday that became a call to action and an emotional plea to end the hate and violence that has wracked the nation.
The funeral for 86-year-old Ruth Whitfield — the oldest of the 10 people killed in the attack two weeks ago — included an impromptu speech by Vice President Kamala Harris. She attended the service at Mount Olive Baptist Church in Buffalo with second gentleman Doug Emhoff.
Harris told the mourners this is a moment in time for “all good people” to stand up to the injustice that happened at the Tops Friendly Market on May 14, as well as the Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, and other mass shootings.
“This is a moment that requires all good people, all God-loving people to stand up and say we will not stand for this. Enough is enough,” said Harris, who wasn’t scheduled to speak and came to the microphone at the urging of the Rev. Al Sharpton. “We will come together based on what we all know we have in common, and we will not let those people who are motivated by hate separate us or make us feel fear.”
Following the funeral, Harris and Emhoff visited a memorial outside the supermarket. The vice president left a large bouquet of white flowers at the site, and the pair paused to pray for several minutes. President Joe Biden and first lady Jill Biden had placed flowers at the same memorial on May 17 and visited with the victims’ families. Biden is expected to head to Texas for a visit this weekend with the families of the victim’s of Tuesday’s school shooting.
Harris later told reporters the administration is not “sitting around waiting to figure out what the solution looks like” to the nation’s gun violence problem.
“We know what works on that,” she said, reiterating support for background checks and a ban on assault weapons. Harris said the nation has to come together, as well.
“We have to agree that if we are to be strong as a nation, we must stand strong, identifying our diversity as our unity,” she said.
It’s been a sad week of goodbyes for family and friends of the Buffalo shooting victims, a group that includes a restaurant worker who went to the market to buy his 3-year-old’s birthday cake; a father and die-hard Buffalo Bills fan who worked as a school bus aide; and a 32-year-old sister who moved to the city to help a brother battling leukemia.
Whitfield, a grandmother and mother of four, had been inside the supermarket after visiting her husband of 68 years in a nursing home when a gunman identified by police as 18-year-old Payton Gendron began the deadly onslaught.
Authorities said Gendron, who is white, targeted the store three hours from his home in Conklin because it is in a predominantly Black neighborhood.
Civil rights attorney Ben Crump, who delivered a fiery tribute to Whitfield at the beginning of the funeral service, called for all “accomplices” who aided and abetted “this monster” who opened fire in the supermarket to be held accountable, from the gun manufacturers and distributors to the parents of the suspect.
Crump said those those who “instructed and radicalized this young, insecure individual” should also be held to account for taking Whitfield from her family, the Buffalo community and the planet. He called her “one of the most angelic figures that we have ever known.”
“It is a sin that this young depraved man, not a boy, went and killed Ruth Whitfield and the ‘Buffalo 10,’” Crump said, referring to the victims.
Sharpton described being floored to learn the shooter live-streamed his assault on Twitch, noting how his mother had grown up in Alabama, where hooded members of the Ku Klux Klan once killed Black people.
Today, he said, white supremacists “are proud to practice racism.”
Sharpton made a pitch for gun control measures during his eulogy, saying all communities need to come together and “disarm the haters.”
“There is an epidemic of racial violence that is accommodated by gun laws that allow people to kill us,” he said. “You ain’t got to love us, but you shouldn’t have easy access to military weapons to kill us.”
In all, 13 people were shot in the attack which federal authorities are investigating as a hate crime. Three people survived.
Whitfield was the mother of former Buffalo Fire Commissioner Garnell Whitfield.
Gendron is charged with first-degree murder and is being held without bail. His attorney has entered a plea of not guilty on his behalf.
Philadelphia firefighters responding to a fire Friday in Old City. “It all comes down to the training that firefighters receive, both from the academy and people like myself who have been out for a while,” Philadelphia Fire Chief Thomas Kane said.
—Tribune Photo/Abdul R. Sulayman
First responders are often called to situations involving mental health issues. However, it’s essential to make sure those responding are in a positive mental space themselves.
First responders are often called to situations involving mental health issues. However, it’s essential to make sure those responding are in a positive mental space themselves.
As a part of Mental Health Awareness Month, Philadelphia Fire Chief Thomas Kane sat on a recent panel to discuss mental health and first responders.
“It all comes down to the training that firefighters receive, both from the academy and people like myself who have been out for a while,” Kane said. “We want to make sure that we can handle our physical, operational needs and everything. And part of that is also how we deal with people.”
Kane said an employee assistance program (EAP) within the fire department and a hotline that offers help whenever someone is in distress. He said that outreach is also done at Philadelphia fire stations to let people know if something is happening there is departmental help.
Kane developed a leadership team called Teamwork, Leadership, and Communications (TLC).
“So, but the main gist of what we’re doing with this is addressing the mental health issues, going department-wide,” Kane said. “This will cover issues ranging from post-traumatic stress, substance use disorder, and harassment. Different issues that firefighters face, both in the firehouse on the fire ground and at home, can affect their lives and performance on the street.”
Eric Gremminger also sat on the panel as the CEO of ERPHealth. Gremminger, a trained mental health clinician, spoke about his company’s work to work with first responders on their health challenges before they can be on the scene to help others.
ERPHealth is a digital behavioral health company that uses technology to personalize patient care and promote health equity.
“One of the things that came up in the panel discussion was that police officers are constantly witnessing traumatic events,” Gremminger said. “So they must have an anonymous outlet to talk about, you know, how these events may be affecting their mental health. You know, these people are critical to our communities.”
Gremminger said that whenever patients, including the many first responders that the Philadelphia-based company services, need to check in, a mental health screening is available that goes straight to their phones.
As mental health conversations have become more open in the past three years, especially since the COVID-19 pandemic, Gremminger said that he believes the stigma attached to discussing and prioritizing mental health has shifted. Also, the anonymous nature of the surveys and screenings through his company provides comfort for people.
Gremminger said that we, as a country, are certainly better off than we were 10 years ago.
“First responders have unique needs,” Gremminger said. “So if they go to a treatment center to put them in with the general population and expect the same treatments to be effective, I think it is a little naive. One of the benefits of a measurement-based care tool like ERPHealth is that week over week we’re tracking and identifying whether or not these first responders are responding to the intervention strategies being offered there. And then quickly determine if they’re not so that we could change the treatment protocols in real-time when it matters most. So you know, on the whole, while validating from a third-party perspective, whether or not certain providers within the network of the fund are performing better than others because there are nuances within the first responder’s community as well.”
Gremminger said the benefits of early detection are immeasurable in helping get to the root of the problem.
“Early intervention can prevent PTSD,” he said. “Treating moderate stress can prevent a stress disorder, treating and just informing consistently.”
Outgoing School District of Philadelphia Superintendent William R. Hite Jr., at left, says “We are thankful for the infusion of one-time federal funding from the American Recovery Plan Act, which has made these dramatic investments in our schools and students possible.” —Tribune Photo/Abdul R. Sulayman
Although the Philadelphia Board of Education projects fewer students this upcoming year in the school district, the budget rose $175 million from last fiscal year.
“We are thankful for the infusion of one-time federal funding from the American Recovery Plan Act, which has made these dramatic investments in our schools and students possible,” said Superintendent William R. Hite Jr. “We are also grateful for the amazing work of every School District employee as we use these investments to support the social, emotional and academic needs of all of our students.”
The Philadelphia Board of Education announced Friday that it had approved an operating budget for the 2022-2023 school year that is the “highest level of investment in our schools and students since fiscal year 2011.”
Families, staff and district stakeholders helped with the budget by participating in its annual budget engagement survey, which was available in nine languages besides English.
Based on the survey results, some of the suggestions that were adopted by the board include: Improving counselor-to-student ratios; adding special education teachers, teachers for English language learners; improvements that move the district closer to goal to certify all schools lead safe by 2024; and supporting the addition of 800 hydration stations in schools by 2025, or sooner.
Currently, in the 2021-2022 school year, the school district invested hundreds of millions of additional dollars to: add positions to meet the specific needs of schools; provide recruitment and retention bonuses for school staff; to improve before and after-school programs in schools; boost the number of psychologists occupational therapists, speech therapist along with behavioral health counselors, climate and trauma response specialists in schools; expand summer learning programs and more.
With the current investment levels, the district now has a teacher for every 12 students and a school-based staff member for every six students.
“Our goal every year is to make continued progress in the investments that support students, schools and student learning,” said Uri Monson, the District’s Chief Financial Officer. “The 2022-2023 budget continues to strategically use one-time federal relief funding and provides students with the most favorable staff-to-student ratio in a decade.”
In June, the city and commonwealth are expected to adopt their budgets, which will impact the school district’s budget as well.
A weeping girl is comforted by her mother as they visit the makeshift memorial at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, on May 25. — Ivan Pierre Aguirre /The New York Times
UVALDE, Texas — After gym class, an awards ceremony and watching “The Jungle Cruise,” Gemma Lopez was with her fourth grade classmates in Room 108, finishing up work and playing around — “doing whatever we do,” as she put it. Then she heard loud popping in the distance. She thought it was firecrackers. But she saw police officers outside her window, and the popping grew louder.
“Everyone was scared and everything, and I told them to be quiet,” Gemma, 10, said. One of her classmates thought it might be a prank and laughed. Gemma said she hushed her.
For years up to that point, she had been drilled on what to do in case a shooter came into her school. “We practice like a lot, since pre-K or kindergarten,” she said. She flipped off the lights in the room, just as she had been taught, she said, and huddled under a big table in the room.
Gemma said that she doesn’t get frightened easily. “I think I get it from my tío” she said. “Because my tío doesn’t get scared at all.” She was calmer than some of her classmates, she said.
But she had never heard gunfire like this before. Her only previous encounter with a gun in real life was when she was 5, her uncle let her fire his BB gun.
“I heard a lot more of the gunshots, and then I was crying a little bit,” she recalled, “and my best friend Sophie was also crying right next to me.”
Eventually, a police officer came to the room and asked if anyone had been hurt. Then, he told the class to hurry out of the school to a funeral home across the street.
“I think it’s the fastest I’ve run in my entire life,” Gemma said. Once she got to the funeral home, she said: “I felt a lot more safer, but I couldn’t stop crying. I thought the man would come again — to the funeral home this time.”
Her grandmother, Fernanda Moreno, was at the store with her brother when she heard about the lockdown at the school. She rushed over, and it was chaos, she said. Police officers were urging the people who had crowded outside the school to stay back. “Someone was crying and screaming,” Moreno recalled. “I didn’t know what to do. I was like a dog and wanted to jump the fence.”
Even so, she said, she did as the officer instructed.
In movies and TV, she had seen police snipers take someone out from a distance. She wished that the police here could have done the same. Still, she said of the police: “They were trying their best. They know their job, what they’re doing,” adding, “I respect that.”
When she finally reunited with Gemma at the civic center, she was overwhelmed with relief. “I saw her — oh my God!” she recalled. She could feel the tears building and wanted to cry. She held it back, she said, and just remembered pulling Gemma in as close as she could.
