News Bites From Across South Carolina And The Nation

**AARP Research Shows Black Women Voters Aged 50 and Over Will Help Decide the Balance of Power in Next Election**

New research by AARP in partnership with pollsters Celinda Lake, Christine Matthews, Kristen Soltis Anderson, and Margie Omero, found that only 17% of Black women have made up their mind about who they will vote for in the 2022 election.

According to a news release, roughly half (53%) of these voters say they will not make their decisions until weeks or just days before the midterm election.

“Black women 50 and over are worried about pocketbook issues, the future of the nation and feeling left behind by their elected officials,” Nancy LeaMond, AARP Chief Advocacy and Engagement Officer, said in the news release.

“The vast majority of these women haven’t made up their minds about how they’ll vote in November. Candidates would be wise to listen to their opinions and concerns.”

According to an AARP survey, Black women 50 and over are more likely to be optimistic about the economy and their personal financial situation than women 50 and over of other races and ethnicities.

The majority (56%) say the economy is working well for them personally, compared

to 52% of 50-plus women overall who say the economy is not working well for them. However, they still have significant concerns.

• Nearly two-thirds (63%) say rising prices are the most important thing to them personally when thinking about the economy, and (81%) are concerned about their income keeping up with rising costs.

• Black women 50 and over are also worried about Social Security being there when they retire (75%) and having enough saved for retirement (22%).

• Political division in the country is also a concern among Black women voters age 50 and over, and they are unimpressed with the job elected officials are doing on a range of issues, including their dominant concern of rising prices.

• Significant majorities give elected officials D/F grades on issues, including prices rising faster than income (80%), the wage gap between the rich and poor (77%), crime (76%), race relations (72%), and the costs of health care and prescription drugs (70%).

A recent focus group hosted by AARP with Black women 50 and over also shows they are very worried about the economy and feel unheard.

**NC School Said Girls Are ‘Fragile’ And Must Wear Skirts**

When parents protested a North Carolina charter school’s skirt requirement for female students, the school said it was based on “traditional values” — including how girls are “‘fragile vessels’ deserving of ‘gentle’ treatment by boys,” according to a federal appeals court. Now the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, located in Richmond, Virginia, has slammed Charter Day School’s skirt requirement in a 10-6 ruling deciding it was unconstitutional on June 14. The case was brought by three students, represented by the American Civil Liberties Union, who challenged their school’s skirt rule by arguing it was rooted in gender stereotypes and went against their rights under the U.S. Constitution’s Equal Protection Clause.

**Like Uvalde, Gunman Opened Fire In SC School, Decades Later The Trauma Endures**

Teacher Ellie Hodge smiled at the young man standing in the cafeteria door at Oakland Elementary School. She thought he was there to have lunch with a student. Then she saw the gun. Greenwood, South Carolina. 1988.

Two 3rd graders, shot to death. Nine injured, including Hodge and the physical education teacher who tried to chase down the shooter, 19-year-old Jamie Wilson. The survivors have had decades to grapple with what they saw and felt that day. The horror never truly goes away.

Each time another school shooting takes place in America they are reminded even more deeply. The May 24 killing of 19 students and two teachers at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, was especially poignant, many of them said. A small town, an elementary school, a stranger with a gun. Greenwood represents an early chapter in the singularly American story of gun violence in schools. The survivors have a unique perspective from a span of nearly 34 years as they have worked to come to grips with the trauma and tragedy, sending children of their own off to school and watching similar scenes unfold in community after community. Amid the ongoing debate about ending gun violence in schools, several survivors agreed to talk about how the shooting shaped their lives.

THE AFTERMATH Through the years, victims have filled in the details their mind told them not to remember. Some learned from others, others remembered on their own.

Hodge was pulled into a freezer by cafeteria personnel. Shortly after the shooting, Hodge’s mother noticed a bruise on her daughter’s neck. They realized the bullet that went through her hand had bounced off her neck. Officers found a fragment on her lunchroom chair. Hodge worried for many years she had abandoned her students by running away. Hypnotherapy helped her see she did not, and coffee many years later with one of the students confirmed that. She told the children to run and made sure they were safely outside. “She was a hero,” said Shannon Hill, who was in Hodge’s first-grade class and sitting beside her when the shooting started.

Hill has a message for everyone: “Don’t ever think that something like this won’t happen to you because none of us ever imagined it would happen to us. Speak up if you have ideas for making schools safer or if you have a concern about something or someone that could be a safety issue. Encourage more productive conversations that can improve our current situation. Do everything that you can now so that you do not have to ask yourself later ‘What if I had done more?’”