Nikki and Brett Cross have been among the most outspoken members of the Uvalde community since the 2022 shooting. Their 10-year-old son, Uziyah, was one of the 19 kids killed alongside their two teachers.
Brett has demonstrated with sit-ins at the Uvalde school district offices and the city’s police department. He’s also made headlines for being kicked out of the Texas capitol for chanting and for being arrested after using expletives at a Uvalde City Council meeting.
Activism has become a way of life for the Crosses over the past two years and they have no plans to quit any time soon.
Nikki says their advocacy isn’t just about her son.
“We’re not going to ever stop fighting for Uziyah and the other kids,” Nikki said. “Justice and accountability are so important to us because we just don’t want the same failures that happened at Uvalde to ever happen anywhere else.”
But their fight for reform and accountability has come with plenty of detractors. According to Brett, some authorities in Uvalde believe the activism in their town has gone on long enough. Brett says city officials were trying to silence him when they arrested him for swearing at a City Council meeting. But, according to Brett, that plan backfired.
“All they did was bring more attention back to Uvalde,” Brett said. “They brought more attention back to Uziyah, which I absolutely love, because our whole fight is making sure that he is remembered.”