The gleaming Oscar sat nestled in a row of teddy bears on Jackie Cazares’ mattress — a one-of-a-kind souvenir in a room her mother and father have left largely untouched for the reason that 9-year-old died in the 2022 faculty capturing in Uvalde, Texas.
Beneath purple string lights on the ceiling, the golden statuette shared area with unusual reminders of Jackie’s life. Across the room, a Ferrero Rocher and a brush tangled with strands of her darkish hair remained on the dresser, the place she left them 4 years in the past.
The Oscar was for “All the Empty Rooms,” a documentary movie that takes viewers contained in the bedrooms of kids killed in faculty shootings. Jackie’s family was one of 4 featured in the movie.
Conall Jones, a producer on the film, was touring to Texas this spring and gave the Oscar to the Cazares family to maintain for a week as a tribute to the lady they misplaced.
The family made probably the most of the Oscar’s go to. Photos obtained by NCS, and printed right here for the primary time, present the statuette making the rounds of locations honoring Jackie. One exhibits the Oscar standing beside her darkish granite headstone. Another exhibits her mom, Gloria Cazares, holding it up beside Jackie’s mural. A 3rd exhibits Jackie’s godfather, Manuel Rizo, cradling it over his coronary heart.
Asked later concerning the expertise, Gloria Cazares informed NCS she would pause in the bed room doorway and gaze on the Oscar amongst her daughter’s issues, unsure whether or not to smile or cry.
“It was overwhelming,” she mentioned about that week in April. “My first thought was this belonged to all of those children who left their empty bedrooms behind, not just Jackie. It wasn’t just an award — it was so much more.”
Far from Hollywood, the statuette felt extra like a memorial than a trophy, Gloria Cazares mentioned.
A month earlier, on the Academy Awards ceremony, Cazares delivered a tearful tribute to her daughter as she accepted the award with director Joshua Seftel on behalf of the 4 households in the movie.
“Jackie is more than just a headline. She is our light and our life,” she informed the theater viewers and the tens of millions watching on TV. “Gun violence is now the number one cause of death in kids and teens. We believe if the world could see their empty bedrooms, we’d be a different America.”
The Dolby Theatre buzzed with pleasure that night, however the 4 households had been occupied with the youngsters they’d misplaced. Gloria Cazares informed NCS she wrestled along with her feelings through the ceremony, and after. The Oscar meant Jackie’s story would attain a world viewers. But she additionally knew she was there that evening solely as a result of Jackie was gone.
“I kept thinking, ‘I shouldn’t be doing this. There’s no reason for me to hold an Oscar,’” she mentioned. “But my biggest fear is her being forgotten, and we knew we had to be there to represent her.”
Her husband Javier Cazares informed NCS if it meant extra individuals would know Jackie, it was price it.
“People were asking, ‘did you see any movie stars?’,” he mentioned. “And I was like, ‘I’m not here for that. I could care less if I see somebody. I’m here for Jackie.”
For Gloria and Javier Cazares, the journey to the Oscars began with a day they want had by no means occurred.
On May 24, 2022, Gloria Cazares was visiting sufferers when a co-worker texted her a temporary message: Shooting at Robb Elementary. The dwelling well being nurse mentioned she jumped into her automotive and sped towards the varsity, behind a convoy of police automobiles and hearth vans. Her husband adopted.
Just hours earlier, the Cazares had been at Jackie’s faculty for an award ceremony, and the abrupt shift from celebration to chaos felt surreal. Panicked mother and father crowded behind police tape, determined to search out their kids. Jackie and her cousin, Annabell, who had been in the identical classroom, by no means emerged.
Photos present chaotic scene as Uvalde college students escape
“It was chaotic. Nobody knew exactly what was going on. It took us a few hours before we knew what happened,” Gloria Cazares mentioned.
Relatives ready at a close by hospital later noticed an ambulance arriving with Jackie on a stretcher. A chaplain led Gloria and Javier Cazares to a personal room, the place they recognized their daughter. She was one of 19 college students and two lecturers killed by an armed teenager that day. An extra 18 individuals had been injured.
The hardest factor, Javier Cazares mentioned, was figuring out their daughter was by no means coming dwelling.
Since the capturing, the mother and father can’t convey themselves to the touch her room. Jackie had simply rearranged and redecorated it weeks earlier than she died, fastidiously selecting the whole lot, together with the purple wall paint and the unicorn mural beside her mattress. It was her secure area, her mother and father mentioned.
“She liked to play host, so anytime we had family staying over, they’d stay in her bedroom. She would have snacks and drinks for them and made sure that they were comfortable,” her mom mentioned. “We wanted to share her story, and her bedroom was a really big part of her.”
Javier Cazares nonetheless goes there nearly every day. Some days, he says good morning or goodnight as he walks by. Other days, he sits beside her mattress and presses a button in the paw of one of her teddy bears, and her recorded laughter fills the room. Jackie beloved animals and wished to be a veterinarian. Her mother and father took the audio from an outdated video of her rolling on the bottom with their canines.
“It brings me comfort to go in there just to chat sometimes,” he mentioned in the movie.
For Gloria Cazares, although, it’s changing into tougher to step into her daughter’s room.
“The more that I go in there, the more I realize how much she’s missing,” she mentioned. “I think a lot about how much that room should have changed these past four years.”
Seftel’s 35-minute documentary exhibits journalist Steve Hartman and photographer Lou Bopp visiting 4 households to doc their children’ rooms, capturing intimate portraits of how mother and father protect their kids’s areas lengthy after they’re gone. The 4 kids in the movie had been between ages 9 and 15.
With every element, the documentary factors to their interrupted lives. An uncapped tube of toothpaste. Unmade beds. Piles of laundry. Hair ties looped round a doorknob.
One of the youngsters, 15-year-old Gracie Muehlberger, was killed in a 2019 capturing at Saugus High School in Santa Clarita, California. In one of the movie’s most emotional scenes, her mother and father discovered letters she’d written to future self, tucked inside a trinket field.
The movie aired on Netflix and additionally options Dominic Blackwell, 14, who was additionally killed at Saugus High, and Hallie Scruggs, 9, who died in the March 2023 capturing on the Covenant School in Nashville, Tennessee.
The filmmakers deliberately keep away from dialogue of gun management. “This film has no agenda whatsoever beyond empathy,” Hartman mentioned.
Seftel mentioned his movie’s message is easy. “That we just need to find a way to protect our children and keep them safe. It’s not more complicated than that,” he mentioned.
At the Oscars, the filmmakers stored the deal with the youngsters. Hartman and Seftel wore tuxedo linings stitched with the names of the 4 children featured in the movie. All the mother and father featured in the movie attended the occasion, and Gloria Cazares gave a 30-second acceptance speech after the households selected her in a straw ballot.
The Cazares family had been the primary to maintain one of the 2 Oscars awarded to the movie — for its director and a producer. The movie’s different households are actually following go well with.
The Blackwells simply obtained one of the Oscars and plan to take pictures of it this weekend at their son Dominic’s grave, mentioned Jones, one of the “Empty Rooms” producers. The Muehlbergers have had the opposite Oscar for a number of weeks and will hand it off to the Scruggs in particular person subsequent week in Tennessee, Jones mentioned.
“Not that I could ever make up for what they’ve lost,” Seftel informed NCS. “When we started the film, we told them, ‘we’re going to tell the story of your child. And if we do it right, the world is going to know your child’s story.’ Hopefully, winning an Oscar comes as close as you can to doing that.”
Meanwhile, Jackie’s room stays frozen in time.
A silver miniature Eiffel Tower – the identical landmark etched onto her headstone – nonetheless sits on the sting of her dresser. She at all times wished to see Paris, and it’s change into a symbol of her large desires and a future reduce brief, her family mentioned.
Every merchandise in the room contributes to the story of who she was, Javier Cazares mentioned, together with her love for softball, canines and singer Olivia Rodrigo.
To Jackie’s mother and father, shifting them would really feel like dropping items of her another time.
“I don’t think we could change it or clean it up,” Javier Cazares mentioned. “There’s no way. Not right now. Not yet.”