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May 26, 2022

What we know about the shooting victims at Texas Robb Elementary School

People collected at a civic middle that night to find out irrespective of whether their liked kinds experienced survived. Some experienced the grim process of furnishing DNA swabs to enable investigators establish irrespective of whether their spouse and children customers was among the victims.

As of Wednesday afternoon, at minimum 6 households stated they experienced obtained devastating information. The bodies of nine victims have been produced to funeral households Wednesday night, Choose Lalo Diaz instructed CNN. The remaining 12 bodies of victims will be produced both afterwards Wednesday night time or Thursday, Diaz explained.

Here’s what friends and kinfolk want anyone to remember about the persons they misplaced:

Irma Garcia

Irma Garcia, a trainer at Robb Elementary, has been recognized as a sufferer in Tuesday’s shooting, CNN has confirmed by a GoFundMe web-site established up to elevate resources for funeral charges and family requirements.

Garcia was a wife and mom to 4 young children, the GoFundMe campaign mentioned.

“Sweet, form, loving. Enjoyment with the biggest personality. A amazing 4th grade instructor at Robb Elementary that was a target in a Texas college shooting in Uvalde, Texas. She sacrificed herself safeguarding the young ones in her classroom. She was a hero. She was cherished by a lot of and will really be missed,” the campaign mentioned.

Garcia’s nephew, John Martinez, instructed The Washington Put up that officers educated the loved ones that she aided defend college students from the gunfire.

“I want her to be remembered as anyone who sacrificed her life and set her everyday living on the line for her children,” Martinez told the Write-up on Wednesday. “They weren’t just her college students. Individuals were her kids, and she place her everyday living on the line, she misplaced her everyday living to protect them. Which is the style of particular person she was.”

In accordance to Garcia’s profile on the Uvalde Consolidated Impartial College District web page, she had been an educator for 23 several years. It was her fifth 12 months co-instructing with Eva Mireles, who was also tragically gunned down at the elementary faculty.

Amerie Jo Garza

For 7 hrs, Angel Garza scrambled to discover his 10-yr-aged daughter, Amerie Jo. He pleaded for the public’s enable on Fb.

“I don’t ask for a lot or barely even article on here but make sure you It truly is been 7 hours and I still have not heard everything on my really like,” Garza wrote. “Be sure to enable me come across my daughter.”

On Wednesday early morning, Garza gave a heartbreaking update.

“Thank you every person for the prayers and assistance seeking to come across my toddler. She’s been discovered. My minor like is now flying higher with the angels above,” Garza posted.

“Be sure to really don’t consider a 2nd for granted. Hug your relatives. Notify them you appreciate them. I like you Amerie jo. Watch above your newborn brother for me.”

Garza informed CNN’s Anderson Cooper Wednesday his daughter had just turned 10 years old two months back. The household gifted her with a telephone, which she experienced been asking for, Garza said.

Garza located out his daughter was striving to use her telephone to phone authorities all through the capturing, two learners informed him. He described he’s med-support and responded to the scene where he noticed one particular female covered in blood who advised him that a person had shot her most effective mate. When Garza questioned who her finest good friend was, the girl stated his daughter’s title.

“I just want persons to know she died making an attempt to preserve her classmates. She just desired to save every person,” Garza mentioned.

The relatives has been striving to cope with Amerie’s dying. Garza stated his 3-12 months-aged son has been inquiring for his sister each and every early morning when he wakes up.

“We educated him that his sister is now with God and she will no for a longer period be with us,” he stated as a result of tears.

“She was the sweetest girl who did nothing erroneous,” Garza reported, breaking down. “I just wanna know what she did to be a target.”

Eva Mireles

A fourth-quality instructor, Eva Mireles, was also killed at the university, spouse and children customers instructed CNN.

Mireles experienced been an educator for 17 yrs. Erica Torres recalled the treatment with which Mireles taken care of her son Stanley, who has autism, though he was in her 3rd- and fourth-grade classes. In an exertion to halt him from wandering all over the school, Mireles set Stanley in demand of rounding up college students to get to class.

“She created you feel like she was only educating your kid,” Torres claimed. “Like there is certainly no other pupils but him. She created you feel so good.”

Mireles’ daughter, Adalynn, tweeted a tribute to her mom Wednesday, a spouse and children member verified to CNN. The tweet also bundled a image of Adalynn and her mom.

“Mom, you are a hero. I continue to keep telling myself that this is not serious. I just want to hear your voice,” the tribute read. “I want to thank you mom, for being such an inspiration to me. I will for good be so happy to be your daughter. My sweet mommy, I will see you once more.”

In her spare time, Mireles loved running, climbing, biking and remaining with her spouse and children, according to her profile on the Uvalde Consolidated Independent College District’s website.

“She was a vivacious soul. She spread laughter and joy everywhere you go she went,” relative Amber Ybarra explained to CNN. “She was a loving and caring mother, relative, trainer to her learners, and it’s definitely tragic what’s going on.”

Xavier Lopez

Just hrs prior to he was killed, 10-year-previous Xavier Lopez was lauded at Robb Elementary’s honor roll ceremony, his mom, Felicha Martinez, explained to The Washington Post.

Martinez took a image of her fourth-grader and instructed him she was happy of him and liked him. That was the final moment she was to share with her “mama’s boy.”

“He was funny, hardly ever really serious, and his smile …” Felicha Martinez explained to the Put up, her voice breaking. “That smile I will in no way forget about. It would normally cheer any person up.”

Just a couple of days shy of completing his previous year of elementary school, Xavier was counting down to his official transfer up the tutorial ladder into Flores Middle School in Uvalde, his mother instructed the Publish.

“He really couldn’t hold out to go to middle college,” she explained.

Uziyah Garcia

The household of 10-year-outdated Uziyah Garcia explained to CNN that their fourth-grader was among the these killed at Robb Elementary.

Uziyah was “entire of life,” according to an uncle, Mitch Renfro. He liked movie online games and something with wheels, and leaves at the rear of two sisters.

“The sweetest little boy that I have at any time acknowledged,” Garcia’s grandfather Manny Renfro instructed CNN affiliate KSAT. “I’m not just saying that since he was my grandkid.”

Uziyah previous frequented his grandfather in San Angelo through his spring crack. Renfro recalls tossing all over a football with him and how immediately his grandson took to the activity.

“We started off throwing the football with each other, and I was training him pass styles. Such a quickly minor boy and he could capture a ball so very good,” Renfro mentioned. “There were specific performs that I would get in touch with that he would recall and he would do it precisely like we practiced.”

Jose Flores Jr.

Jose Flores Jr., 10, was also between those people killed at Robb Elementary, his father Jose Flores Sr. explained to CNN.

Flores explained the fourth grader as an amazing kid and large brother to his two siblings. Jose loved baseball and movie online games.

“He was generally entire of vitality,” Flores said. “Ready to enjoy till the evening.”

Lexi Rubio

Felix and Kimberly Rubio had just celebrated their daughter Lexi’s achievements at college just before she was killed.

Lexi, who was 10 several years aged and in the fourth quality, experienced designed the All-A honor roll and obtained a superior citizen award, her mom and dad informed CNN.

“We instructed her we liked her and would decide her up following college. We experienced no strategy this was goodbye,” Kimberly Rubio wrote in a post on Facebook.

The mother and father explained to CNN they were happy of their daughter, who cherished softball and basketball. She required to be a lawyer when she grew up, the relatives explained to CNN.

“She was sort, sweet, and appreciated lifestyle. She was likely to be an all-star in softball and experienced a brilliant long term, regardless of whether it is sports or educational. Remember to enable the environment know we skip our newborn.”

Felix Rubio, a deputy with the Uvalde County Sheriff’s Place of work, told CNN’s Jason Carroll he was a person of many authorities who responded to the scene of the capturing. The grieving father explained he needs to see gun violence addressed.

“All I can hope is that she’s just not a quantity,” he explained by means of tears. “This is enough. No a single else needs to go by means of this. We in no way essential to go by this, but we are.”

Tess Marie Mata

Tess Marie Mata, 10, had been conserving cash for a excursion to Disney Planet with her loved ones just before she was killed at Robb Elementary, her sister, Faith Mata, advised The Washington Put up.

Tess was in the fourth grade and beloved TikTok dances, Ariana Grande and the Houston Astros, Religion Mata informed the Article.

“My important angel you are beloved so deeply. In my eyes you are not a target but a survivor. I appreciate you often and past for good little one sister, may well your wings soar greater then you could at any time desire,” Religion Mata wrote on Twitter.

Nevaeh Alyssa Bravo

Ten-year-old Nevaeh Alyssa Bravo was killed in the capturing, her cousin taged the Washington Put up.

Austin Ayala informed the paper the household is devastated following dropping Nevaeh, whom he explained set a smile on everyone’s experience

Funeral expert services are pending, according to an on the internet obituary by Hillcrest Memorial Funeral Household.

Annabell Guadalupe Rodriguez

Spouse and children associates recognized Annabell Guadalupe Rodriguez, 10, as one of the victims, according to CNN affiliate KHOU-Television set.

She was a 3rd-grader at the college. Her loved ones advised KHOU that she was in the exact classroom as her cousin, who was also shot and killed.

The cousin’s name has not been introduced.

Eliana ‘Ellie’ Garcia

Relatives associates discovered Eliana “Ellie” Garcia, 9, as one of the victims, in accordance to CNN affiliate KHOU.

Rogelio Lugo and Nelda Lugo, Garcia’s grandparents, informed the Los Angeles Occasions that she was a fourth-grader at the university and the 2nd-eldest of five girls in the loved ones.

She cherished the film “Encanto,” cheerleading and basketball, according to her grandparents. They include that she dreamed of getting to be a instructor.

Eliahana ‘Elijah’ Cruz Torres

Eliahana “Elijah” Cruz Torres, 10, was also killed in the capturing, her aunt Leandra Vera informed CNN. “Our infant obtained her wings,” Vera reported.

CNN’s Jose Lesh, Amanda Jackson, Nicole Chavez, Chris Boyette, Sara Smart, Jeffrey Wintertime, Caroll Alvarado, David Williams, Sara Smart, Amanda Watts and Raja Razek contributed to this report.

May 25, 2022

What we know about the Texas elementary school shooting that left 19 students and 2 adults dead

The lone gunman, recognized by officials as 18-12 months-previous Salvador Ramos, was shot and killed by responding law enforcement. He arrived at Robb Elementary Faculty with a prolonged rifle and donning physique armor, in accordance to Sgt. Erick Estrada with the Texas Office of Community Protection.

The school teaches second by way of fourth grades and had 535 learners in the 2020-21 faculty calendar year, in accordance to condition facts.

This is what we know about the taking pictures, which transpired two times before summertime crack.

How the capturing unfolded

Ramos shot his grandmother Tuesday early morning prior to arriving at the school, Estrada explained, and law enforcement had been known as to her house to look into. She was in important issue late Tuesday, Estrada reported.

Following that, law enforcement obtained a further report all over 11:30 a.m. that a vehicle experienced crashed into a ditch around the elementary faculty, Estrada stated. Police feel Ramos was driving that auto, which grew to become disabled within the ditch.

Parents waited late into the night for children to be identified after a gunman killed 19 students and 2 adults at a Texas elementary school

Following the crash, Ramos exited the automobile with a rifle in hand and carrying a bulletproof vest, Estrada stated.

“He was engaged by an Uvalde ISD police officer who performs listed here at the college. And then after that, he was engaged by two other officers from the Uvalde Law enforcement Section,” Estrada explained to CNN’s Don Lemon. The officers were not ready to stop Ramos, so they asked for aid from a tactical company, Estrada stated. “A tactical agency came in and was equipped to eradicate the danger and provide the suspect down,” he included.

Officers have not been very clear on how Ramos managed to get earlier the officers and open hearth in various school rooms. The bring about of the crash ahead of he entered the school also continues to be unclear. There ended up no studies from law enforcement that Ramos was remaining pursued prior to the crash, Estrada claimed.

A lot more than 20 US Customs and Border Protection brokers responded to the scene and provided aid, a law enforcement formal stated. A CBP agent was wounded in the response but is stable, the formal reported.

The agents and other legislation enforcement officers took hearth from the shooter, who had barricaded himself, Section of Homeland Safety spokeswoman Marsha Espinosa tweeted. “Risking their own lives, these Border Patrol Brokers and other officers set themselves in between the shooter and young children on the scene to draw the shooter’s attention away from opportunity victims and help save life,” she wrote.

A motive for the capturing is unclear at this time, Estrada mentioned.

Members of the community gather at the City of Uvalde Town Square for a prayer vigil in the wake of a mass shooting at Robb Elementary School on Tuesday.

What we know about the victims

Moms and dads and cherished kinds waited in agony for hours Tuesday at a civic center-turned-reunifcation heart for any details on their small children.

“We see people today coming out just terrorized. They are crying one by a person. They are being advised that their baby has handed on,” State Sen. Roland Gutierrez advised CNN Tuesday night time from the civic center.

Exterior the civic centre, a father who experienced learned his child was useless fought tears as he was embraced by his cousins, according to CNN’s Nicole Chavez.

A number of yards away, a grandmother arrived from San Antonio and mentioned she would not halt praying for her 10-calendar year-aged granddaughter as they waited for identification success of the DNA swabs.

Gunman at a Texas elementary school kills 19 students and two adults before being fatally shot, officials say

Eva Mireles, a fourth-grade instructor, was killed in the capturing, her aunt Lydia Martinez Delgado instructed CNN.

“I am furious that these taking pictures carry on, these kids are harmless, rifles should really not be quickly out there to all. This is … my hometown a smaller neighborhood of considerably less than 20,000,” she informed CNN affiliate KSAT in a statement. “I never imagined this would occur to particularly to cherished kinds. … All we can do is pray tricky for our state, state, faculties and primarily the people of all.”

Mireles had been an educator for 17 a long time, in accordance to her profile on the Uvalde Consolidated Impartial Faculty District site. In her off time, she enjoyed jogging, climbing, biking, and expending time with her spouse and children, according to the web-site.

The faculty district reported it will terminate the remainder of the university 12 months. Thursday was set to be the past day of college ahead of the summer months crack.

Uvalde County, located about 85 miles west of San Antonio, had a population of about 25,000 as of the 2020 Census.

People outside the SSGT Willie de Leon Civic Center, where students had been brought from Robb Elementary School after the shooting on Tuesday.

What we know about the shooter

The shooter was a college student at Uvalde Substantial Faculty, officers claimed.

Three times prior to taking pictures, a picture of two AR-15-style rifles appeared on an Instagram account tied to Ramos.

1 of Ramos’ previous classmates, who didn’t want to be identified, advised CNN Ramos not long ago sent him a photo displaying an AR-15, a backpack with rounds of ammunition and various gun publications.

Law enforcement officers outside of Robb Elementary School following the mass shooting on Tuesday.

“I was like, ‘Bro, why do you have this?’ and he was like, ‘Don’t be concerned about it,'” the mate said.

“He proceeded to textual content me, ‘I appear really diverse now. You would not understand me,'” the mate added.

The buddy also stated Ramos had stopped attending faculty frequently.

Ramos labored at a regional Wendy’s, the restaurant’s manager confirmed to CNN.

Night supervisor Adrian Mendes reported Ramos “stored to himself largely” and “didn’t genuinely socialize with the other workforce. … He just labored, obtained compensated, and came in to get his check.”

CNN’s Paradise Afshar, Curt Devine, Jeff Winter season, Eric Levenson, Evan Perez, Andy Rose, Priscilla Alvarez, Jamiel Lynch, Donie O’Sullivan, Jose Lesh, Amanda Jackson, Chris Boyette, Joseph Bonheim, Jennifer Henderson and Joe Sutton contributed to this report.

December 1, 2021

Kids are shooting hoops with socks, but pandemic phys ed is not cancelled

It’s almost time for gym class, and my fifth grader can’t find her tennis ball.

“Adrienne, did you take it?” she demands of her younger sister, who swears she didn’t (though she probably did).

“How about a soccer ball?” I ask. They’re practicing dribbling skills.

“No, Mom,” she says firmly. “We’re indoors.” It has to be a tennis ball. She searches under the coffee table and behind the couch; scours her sister’s cluttered room. No tennis ball.

This is what remote phys ed looks like in our house.

And this is what it sounds like: Thundering footfalls from the bedroom above my office, as my third grader jumps over virtual dinner plates, dodges pixels of pumpkin pie and karate-chops cartoon carrots in a Thanksgiving-themed online fitness game that her PE teacher is using as a warmup.

The coronavirus pandemic and the resulting widespread shift to remote learning have brought major changes to phys ed in the United States. Gone are the team sports played in wide-open fields behind the school. In their place are Turkey Ninja Warrior and water-bottle bowling, solitary pursuits conducted couch-side, in spaces as small as a studio apartment. Rolled up socks and laundry baskets have replaced balls and nets, as schools seek everyday alternatives to stranded sports equipment.

The author’s daughter, Emma, 11, practices water-bottle bowling in her living room. Credit: Kelly Field for the Hechinger Report

The PE instructors I spoke with said the students seem to be having fun — the ones they can see on video, at least. Privacy policies in many districts bar teachers from requiring students to keep their cameras on, and some students don’t.

But it’s hard to gauge if they’re getting the same benefits from online PE as they did from in-person classes. Some students lack the equipment, space or parental support to participate fully. Instructors say it’s tough to teach and assess motor skills, like catching and kicking, online.

Meanwhile, public health experts say kids need exercise more than ever.

“PE is so important, because our kids are sitting from 8 to 3,” said Michelle Huff, a high school PE teacher in New Jersey.

In a majority of districts, students are spending some or all of their school days online. They’re missing out on recess and extracurricular sports, many of which have been cancelled for safety reasons. And they’re eating more junk food, according to research from Ireland and Italy. Public health experts here are worried about unhealthy eating too. Compounding these issues, many students around the country live in crowded apartments or in neighborhoods where it’s not safe to exercise outside. In some cities, parks are closed due to the pandemic.

If school closures continued through the end of this year, childhood obesity rates would climb by more than 2 percent.

If school closures continue through the end of this year, childhood obesity rates will climb by more than 2 percent, according to estimates in a recent study by a researcher at Washington University in St. Louis.

And though there’s little hard data on how much exercise kids are getting right now, the anecdotal evidence is that they are not moving as much as they should. In surveys Huff conducted this fall with 200 students at Metuchen High School, students said they had headaches from staring at the screen, that their backs hurt from sitting, and that they weren’t retaining anything.

Related: How a growing number of states are hoping to improve kids’ brains: exercise

School-age children should get an hour or more of moderate-to-vigorous physical activity daily, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Students in elementary school should spend 150 minutes a week in PE while students in middle and high school should receive 225 minutes a week of PE instruction, according to recommendations from the Society of Health and Physical Educators (SHAPE), which represents PE and health instructors.

The benefits of exercise for children are well-established. Children who are aerobically fit are not only physically healthier than their sedentary peers — their brains are more developed, too, said Charles Hillman, a psychology professor at Northeastern University. His research indicates that fit children appear to have more mature prefrontal cortices and hippocampi — the parts of the brain associated with attention, memory and self-regulation, and by extension, academic achievement.

Exercise can also alleviate depression and anxiety — conditions that have intensified in many students during the pandemic. And it’s critical to combatting childhood obesity, which affects one in seven kids between the ages of 10 and 17 nationally, with even higher rates among low-income children and children of color.

“You have to keep them moving, because if they aren’t focused, if they have too much energy, they aren’t going to learn anything.”

Leslie Monterrosa, a second-grade teacher in Concord, California

Yet, even before COVID-19 shut down schools, fewer than half the states set any minimum amount of time that students must participate in PE, according to SHAPE.

With much of PE now online, some kids are getting even less time in class than before. In March, California’s governor waived the state’s time requirement, prompting some districts to eliminate PE as a stand-alone class or make it an elective. At least two Massachusetts districts have eliminated elementary PE altogether this year, according to the president of the state’s SHAPE chapter.

Portland, Oregon nearly laid off all its elementary adaptive PE instructors, who work with children with disabilities, before teachers defeated the move. Neighboring Hillsboro, a diverse city, was less lucky: The district reassigned all but one of its 15 elementary PE instructors to classroom positions to meet Oregon’s pandemic class size guidelines. That left the lone remaining gym teacher to teach 11,000 students asynchronously by creating Google slides for them to use.

Advocates for phys ed fear more cuts could be coming, as districts grapple with looming budget cuts stemming from the current economic downturn. And if the Great Recession is any guide, those cuts could fall hardest on high-poverty districts, where students already have less access to afterschool sports than in wealthier ones.

“Not all students have the privilege of taking ballet classes or sports clubs,” said Julia Stevens, the president of Oregon’s SHAPE chapter.

Related: Immigrants find hope in soccer, but some states won’t let them play

For now, though, PE instructors are focused on finding creative ways to keep their kids engaged. They’re sending kindergarteners on scavenger hunts that have them running around their homes to collect items. They’re challenging high schoolers to “beat the teacher” by performing more push-ups in a minute than their instructor.

“We’re disguising fitness,” said Brett Fuller, the president of SHAPE’s national board of directors, and a curriculum specialist for health and physical ed within Milwaukee Public Schools. “You can’t just do a fitness class, because kids will say it’s no fun.”

Back in New Jersey, Huff is working hard to make her classes fun. She’s created Tik Tok dance and exercise challenges, some of them with her sister, a PE teacher in another school. (And she’s not the only gym teacher embracing Tik Tok.) She’s also teaching students movement and mindfulness exercises they can perform, even during Zoom classes.

Since most kids don’t have a whole lot of gym gear in their homes, SHAPE’s reopening guidance recommends that teachers ask students what they do have on hand and provide a checklist of common household items that could be repurposed as sports equipment.

Some substitutions are simple — cut plastic gallon milk cartons for catching, or unopened canned soup for weights. Others are trickier. Kyle Bragg, an elementary school PE instructor in Scottsdale, Arizona, said he’s yet to find an acceptable alternative to a jump rope; nothing rotates at the same speed. He’s told kids to ask their parents to buy one, but he can’t force them. So for now, he’s stuck with some students jumping over pillows.

“It’s kind of like taking a pencil away from a classroom teacher,” he said. “It’s nearly impossible to meet a jump rope standard without a jump rope.”

Some districts are purchasing take-home kits containing jump ropes, balls and bean bags. But the kits can be pricey, and not all districts can afford them. In normal times, the median budget for PE equipment and supplies is just $764 a year per school, according to a 2016 report by SHAPE.

So some teachers are soliciting supplies online, through sites like DonorsChoose.org. Between July 1 and Dec. 1, teachers submitted 860 requests (out of 181,000 total) that referenced virtual PE, according to Christopher Pearsall, the website’s vice president for brand and communications. The most sought-after items, by far, were jump ropes.

“It’s kind of like taking a pencil away from a classroom teacher. It’s nearly impossible to meet a jump rope standard without a jump rope.”

Kyle Bragg, an elementary school PE instructor in Scottsdale, Arizona

One of the requests came from Leslie Monterrosa, a second grade teacher in Concord, California. She knows her low-income, English language learners tend to live in small apartments and have busy working parents, so she asked for equipment they could use on their own, in small spaces — jump ropes and bean bags. A donor stepped up within days.

“You have to keep them moving, because if they aren’t focused, if they have too much energy, they aren’t going to learn anything,” she said.

Some instructors are offering students choices: If they don’t have the equipment they need for one activity — say soccer — they can try another, like running. The alternative might not target the same skills, but at least it gets them moving.

And in the midst of a pandemic that has upended nearly every aspect of education, some standards may simply need to be set aside for a bit, instructors say.

“You gotta be OK with OK,” David Daum, an assistant professor of kinesiology at San Jose State University in California, said he tells teachers. “If you are trying hard, your students will see it. Just do your best.”

The hardest things to teach and evaluate online, instructors say, are the skills, strategies and collaboration involved in team sports. There’s just no way to play soccer alone in your living room.

Related: Ed tech can transform physical education classes, too

That’s why online PE courses — which have existed at the high school and college levels since at least the late 1990s — have historically favored fitness-based instruction, like interval training and biking, over the development of gross motor skills like jumping and throwing. Covid-era classes seem to be following the same trend, said Daum, who researches online PE.

This neglect of motor skills in online PE courses has been one of the chief criticisms of the delivery of classes via the internet. In its guidelines for online PE, SHAPE argues that the development of motor skills competence is “the highest priority of physical education,” and should be a “central component of any online physical education course.”

During the pandemic, some teachers have been asking students to send short video clips of themselves performing individual skills, like jumping rope. (Cooperative skills, like passing a ball, are harder to measure, since not everyone has a partner.) But there are limitations and drawbacks to that approach: Some parents aren’t comfortable with their children sharing videos of themselves and some students send clips that are far too long. With dozens of students per grade, reviewing the submissions can take an instructor hours.

The alternative is to conduct assessments in livestream classes, but that can open students up to ridicule and cyber-bullying. Some districts have policies stating that students can’t be required to keep their cameras on.

In such districts, it can be hard to tell if students are participating at all. They might be doing jumping jacks, or they might be watching YouTube.

To gauge participation, many instructors are asking students to answer a question in a chat box or complete an exit ticket with questions about the lesson and their own performance. Some schools with fully asynchronous PE are relying on the honor system, with students using logs to report how much exercise they get each day.

It’s unclear how many students are actually doing the portions of PE that aren’t livestreamed. Are busy working parents enforcing it? Given the hassle involved — one lesson in our house required my daughter to collect no fewer than seven household items — should parents just send their kids out to play instead?

No, said Stephanie Morris, the CEO of SHAPE America. Outdoor play is great. But PE is about more than just being active, she said. It’s about “learning skills to be healthy.”

Related: Schedules for distance learning are all over the place (and it’s making parents crazy)

Despite the challenges involved in remote learning, Fuller, SHAPE’s president, sees the pandemic as an opportunity to show that PE is not only about team sports. Teachers are learning technological skills that “none of us ever dreamt they’d have,” he said. And students are discovering that fitness can be fun, even without group games.

“Sitting on a couch in front of a computer may be some people’s dream job, but it drives me crazy.”

Andrew VanDorick, an elementary PE teacher in Maryland

“I see this as an opportunity to do things differently, to really showcase what we should be about,” he said, “and that is developing physical literacy: the skills, knowledge and attitudes to be physically active for a lifetime.”

Still, many PE instructors said they’re eager to return to the gym and sports fields.

“I became a PE teacher because I needed to keep moving,” said Andrew VanDorick, an elementary PE teacher in Maryland. “Sitting on a couch in front of a computer may be some people’s dream job, but it drives me crazy. I can’t wait to be back in front of the kids.”

Oh, and that missing tennis ball? Turns out it isn’t essential after all. When it vanishes again, just in time for water-bottle bowling, my 11-year-old substitutes a lacrosse ball — and rolls a spare.

This story about phys ed was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, independent news organization focused on inequality and innovation in education. Sign up for the Hechinger newsletter.

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