Thread by @AZBethLewis

I am dazed & furious. Last night, I was in the #AZLeg Senate Gallery (right after ESA voucher expansion passed 😡), when calls for evacuation started erupting on the Senate Floor & ppl started running scared. Senator @RaquelTeran asked where members of the public (us) would go -

Rs told us to leave out the front. Some Dems started shouting that it wasn't safe, it was a riot. That we should be evacuated safely. It took SEVERAL mins of convincing while Rs were running away. We gathered the children & folded up wagon, still not knowing what was going on.

We were brought to the back hall & staircase, where the smell of tear gas & smoke choked us. We all put on KN95s & were told we were going 4 floors down to basement, but gas was stronger & they diverted us all (Senators, staff too) back up to the 2nd floor. Children were crying

We all emptied onto the Senate Floor, at which point folks started yelling that we shouldn't be there and had to leave(!) A friend asked if it was safe to leave & Sgt said NO. I had to advocate strongly for our safety & Senator Bowie, Teran, Otondo & Marsh offered their offices

The Sgt of Arms & some Rs were ready to throw us into the tear gas. Because we were there advocating for public schools & AZ children's education. Because we were on a different side of a policy issue. I have never been more angry in my life. They wanted to send a 6-year old into

tear-gas because his mom is a teacher & was advocating for 1.1M public school children. It's unconscionable.

We waited for the clear in Bowie's office. Senator Fann helped us to water bottles - yet other Senators like Wendy Rogers are raging on the Internet that teachers

caused the "insurrection" 🙄 It's all BS

Accounts from outside show there were a few people kicking the glass-- that's no cause for tear gas, with no warning, on grandmothers & children. The police need to be trained to intervene & still keep ppl safe.

Bottom line - the people charged with keeping us safe don't care about us. They don't care about kids -- they care about politics & phony agendas. They don't have the integrity to correct lies on twitter, they spread them if it fits their phony agenda. It's terrifying & shameful.

We need new leadership at every level of AZ government. It shouldn't rest on a few people to prevent sending a crowd of innocent teachers & children into what they called a "riot" - while the rest of our "leaders" scurried for safety. Unacceptable.