I have spent the last six years volunteering with Moms Demand Action in Arkansas for one reason: Adriana Hernandez.
Adriana was my student in seventh and eighth grade, until her life ended at 15 years old. She was energetic and sharp as a tack. Funny and kind, with a smile that made her eyes twinkle. I was so excited when I saw her name on my roster again for eighth grade.
On Mother’s Day 2017, she was shot to death along with her mother. Their bodies were stacked in the back of an SUV. The perpetrator: her mother’s former boyfriend, who also murdered Adriana’s 16-year-old boyfriend and later shot himself. A triple murder-suicide at the hands of a man with multiple domestic violence felonies committed against Adriana’s mother, his girlfriend. A loophole killed this child and her mother.
In my grief, I found a home with the local Moms Demand Action group. Later, I joined the state leadership team as the Students Demand Action liaison. Every action I take, every gun lock I give out, every person I talk to about SDA or BeSMART, is because I knew and loved and lost Adriana Hernandez.