Day of triumph turned to day of tragedy for honor student

By ELLIOT SPAGAT and STEPHEN GROVES
Associated Press

UVALDE, Texas (AP) — Tuesday should have been a day of triumph for 10-year-old Maite Rodriguez. Instead, it was the day she died. Maite was among 19 grade school students and two teachers who were shot to death at Robb Elementary School in the southwestern Texas town of Uvalde. The 18-year-old gunman also died. Maite had always been a straight-A student until the COVID-19 pandemic forced the school to call off in-person classes. Zoom didn’t work well for Maite and she got all Fs. But with school back in session, Maite rebounded, achieving all As and Bs. She was among the honor roll students recognized at an assembly Tuesday morning, hours before her death.