DALLAS, Texas — The Uvalde Foundation for Kids, a national nonprofit dedicated to student advocacy and campus violence prevention, announced Sunday that it will present this week to Texas state lawmakers its final draft Ahmir’s Law, which it named in honor of 11-year-old Ahmir Jolliff of Perry, who was killed in the Jan. 4, 2024, shooting at Perry High School.
The foundation, which was formed following the May 2022 school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, that left 19 children and two adults dead, provided support to the Perry community following its 2024 school shooting, including honoring PHS Principal Daniel Marburger with its posthumous award for heroism.
The foundation announced in January its plans to draft the proposal for the new law, named in honor of the slain student. If passed, Ahmir’s Law would require, among other things, that individuals, credibly “flagged” by law enforcement as a potential threat to public safety due to a documented history of violence, would be immediately entered into a six-month violence-prevention program.
Individuals would also be prohibited from purchasing or possessing weapons while under the violence-prevention program and would require a three-month follow-up period after successful completion of the program.
The foundation said its own independent review of the Perry shooting revealed evidence of “numerous documented reports by community members to local and federal law enforcement regarding the shooter, Dylan Butler, with no substantial action taken to intervene by officials.”
It said interventions under Ahmir’s Law “would cause an individual’s warning signs, illustrating a clear descent into violent behaviors, to be interrupted and hopefully ended before escalation and tragedy.”
Uvalde Foundation for Kids officials noted that the proposed Ahmir’s Law is their second nationwide effort they are currently working on in order to protect the welfare of students, including their advocacy of a new Missouri law following the daycare death May 16 in Park Hills, Missouri, of a nonverbal, autistic 3-year-old, Conrad Ashcraft.
