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(BUFFALO, N.Y.) — At least 10 people are dead and another three wounded after a mass shooting at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, that authorities said was a “racially motivated hate crime.”

An 18-year-old white, male suspect is in custody, police said. The shooter live-streamed the attack on social media, authorities said.

The gunman, wearing military fatigues, body armor and a tactical helmet, shot four people in the parking lot of a Tops supermarket around 2:30 p.m., three fatally. He proceeded inside the store where he was confronted by a retired Buffalo police officer working security, police said.

The guard shot and struck the suspect, but without effect due to the body armor, police said.

The gunman then proceeded to shoot nine more people inside the store, police said. He threatened to shoot himself before dropping his gun and surrendering to police, authorities said.

Among the 13 victims shot, 11 were African American and two were white, authorities said.

Four of the shooting victims were store employees, while the rest were customers, authorities said. The Buffalo police officer working security was among those killed, according to a law enforcement official.

Three victims suffered non-life-threatening gunshot wounds, authorities said.

The scene is no longer active and no other suspects are outstanding, a law enforcement official said.

The gun was legally obtained but modified with illegal magazines, according to Gov. Kathy Hochul.

“There is no depth to the outrage I’m feeling right now,” she said during a briefing Saturday.

The suspect — identified as Payton Gendron of Conklin, New York — was arraigned on one count of first-degree murder and ordered held without bail Saturday evening, according to Erie County District Attorney John Flynn. His office is also investigating terrorism charges, he said.

The suspect traveled from a New York county several hours away to the Buffalo store, authorities said.

“This is the worst nightmare any community can face,” Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown said at a press briefing Saturday.

The FBI is separately investigating the attack as a hate crime and as racially motivated violent extremism.

Early indications are the shooter may have possessed extremist beliefs cultivated online, law enforcement sources told ABC News.

Investigators are looking at multiple online postings that may be associated with the shooter that include praise for South Carolina church shooter Dylann Roof and the New Zealand mosque shooter Brenton Tarrant, according to the sources.

“This was pure evil,” Erie County Sheriff John Garcia told reporters. “It was a straight-up racially motivated hate crime from somebody outside of our community…coming into our community and trying to inflict evil upon us.”

Flynn said there are pieces of evidence that “indicate some racial animosity,” but would not elaborate more at this point in the investigation.

Hochul said she has directed the New York State Police’s Hate Crimes Task Force to assist in the investigation.

A home associated with the suspect in Conklin, a town near Binghamton in Broome County, was being searched by the FBI and New York State Police Saturday evening, according to law enforcement officials and eyewitnesses. Hochul confirmed during a news briefing that a home in Broome County was being searched Saturday.

Authorities did not specify which social media platform the suspect used to allegedly livestream the shooting. But following the attack, the video game live streaming platform Twitch said it had indefinitely suspended a user over the shooting in Buffalo.

“Twitch has a zero-tolerance policy against violence of any kind and works swiftly to respond to all incidents,” a Twitch spokesperson said in a statement. “The user has been indefinitely suspended from our service, and we are taking all appropriate action, including monitoring for any accounts rebroadcasting this content.”

The company said it removed the stream within two minutes of the violence starting and is monitoring Twitch for any restreams of the content or related content.

Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz also tweeted Saturday afternoon that he had been “advised of an active multiple shooting event” at the supermarket.

“A horrible day in the history [of] our community,” Poloncarz said in a statement. “Like too many communities in our nation, we’ve been impacted by the horror [of] a mass shooting. My thoughts are about the deceased and with their families at this terrible time.”

President Joe Biden has been briefed on the shooting, his press secretary said.

“He will continue to receive updates throughout the evening and tomorrow as further information develops,” White House press secretary Karine Jean-Pierre said in a statement. “The President and the First Lady are praying for those who have been lost and for their loved ones.”

Attorney General Merrick Garland was also made aware of the incident.

“The Justice Department is investigating this matter as a hate crime and an act of racially-motivated violent extremism. The Justice Department is committed to conducting a thorough and expeditious investigation into this shooting and to seeking justice for these innocent victims,” the statement read.

Tops Friendly Markets said in a statement it was “shocked and saddened” by the shooting and offered condolences to the victims and their families.

“We appreciate the quick response of local law enforcement and are providing all available resources to assist authorities in the ongoing investigation,” the Amherst, New York-based supermarket chain said.

NAACP President Derrick Johnson called the organization was “shattered” and “extremely angered” by the incident.

“This is absolutely devastating. Our hearts are with the community and all who have been impacted by this terrible tragedy,” Johnson said. “Hate and racism have no place in America.”

ABC News’ Matt Foster and Luke Barr contributed to this report.

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(MILWAUKEE) — Milwaukee Mayor Cavalier Johnson imposed a two-night curfew for individuals under the age of 21 within the city’s entertainment district on Saturday. The curfew is from 11 p.m. to 5:30 a.m. on Saturday and Sunday.

Police will be enforcing the curfew and individuals found in violation will be arrested and fined $691, according to police.

The curfew comes after three shootings in the entertainment district left 21 people injured on Friday.

“I fully expect that when people cause death, harm and destruction in Milwaukee that they should be held fully accountable under the law,” Johnson said during a press conference Saturday.

He later added: “What happened here in this neighborhood last night, it will not be tolerated.”

The Milwaukee Police Department is investigating a non-fatal shooting incident that occurred late Friday night. Police said the shooting occurred due to a “confrontation” between a “couple groups that exchanged in gunfire”

There were 17 victims, their ages raging from 15 to 47. They are all expected to survive, police said.

Police have arrested 10 people and nine guns have been recovered from at least five people who were armed.

Police are also investigating a triple shooting that occurred Friday. The victims were a 29-year-old male, a 16-year-old female and a 26-year-old male and are all expected to survive, according to police.

A 19-year-old male was taken into custody in connection with this incident and charges against him are pending review by the Milwaukee County District Attorney’s Office.

A third shooting injured one person on Friday. The victim, a 20-year-old Milwaukee man, was taken to the hospital and is expected to survive. Police said they are still looking for unknown suspect(s).

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(NEW YORK) — During the early days of the pandemic, Cayci Weaver was able to hold on to her teaching job. Educating high school students, however, was not easy; the switch to remote learning was a challenge, she says.

“I think we were working 12-hour days for about a week, just trying to get everything set up,” she said, adding: “You know, you gotta do what you gotta do to make sure you’re not failing the students.”

But she says after those initial struggles, students adapted, and so did she.

Weaver said she didn’t always want to be a teacher. Even into her college years, she says she was still unsure of what career path to take.

But she said she had always loved history. That’s why, a little more than ten years ago, she applied for a job at a school in Jacksonville, Florida. After teaching middle school for a time, she eventually moved to the high school level, teaching American history to 11th and 12th graders.

It may not have been a lifelong dream, but Weaver says she came to love teaching.

“Nobody gets into teaching because you’re going to make a lot of money, because you know you’re not going to,” Weaver tells ABC Audio. “You get into it because you like what you’re doing. You care about what you’re doing.”

Though money was tight on a teacher’s salary, Weaver says she lived comfortably during the twelve years she spent in the classroom.

“I stuck it out for a while,” she said.

While many Americans lost their jobs in 2020, Weaver was still working and adapting to changes brought by the pandemic.

“After the ball got rolling, and the kids adapted to what the new normal was… I actually enjoyed it a lot more,” says Weaver.

She also says that time allowed her to discover something about her job that she didn’t fully see before the pandemic.

“For me, I think I thrived, a bit, in that environment,” she says.

She says working remotely illuminated the things she was missing during her days commuting back and forth to school.

“It was just better being at home, where I could spend more time with family and my pups, so I actually enjoyed that a whole lot more,” she says. “It felt like I had more time to enjoy what I wanted to do while still also being present for the students and still teaching.”

When the 2020 school year began, Weaver’s school had adopted a hybrid model for students, and she had to continue teaching students remotely while at the same time engaging the students who returned to school for in-person learning. Plus, with parents going back to work, coronavirus concerns began to mount, as well.

“The number of parents that would send their kids to school when they knew their kids were sick because they didn’t have day care for them, or they didn’t have an option – they didn’t have anyone to watch their kids – that happened quite frequently.”

For Weaver and her colleagues, all of that equaled burnout.

“We always called it the ‘April feeling,’ where you just wanted the end of the school year to get here because you’re worn out. That ‘April feeling’ came in September,” she says.

So at the end of that school year, in May 2021, after her students made it through state testing, Weaver quit her job.

“Twelve years later, I think I’m ready to just cut my losses and start looking out for more me, and my future long term, rather than just living paycheck to paycheck,” she says.

She’s now a real estate agent, and while it might not be as much history on a day-to-day basis, she says things have been easier. Weaver says in the first two months of 2022 she’s already made half of her full year’s salary as a teacher. And she says her finances aren’t the only thing that’s improved.

“I think I made the right choice,” she said. “I can get home a little early to make sure I have time to cook, or I can get home a little earlier to make sure that I can do the things that I want to do. I 100 percent think that this was the right call for me.”

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(NEW YORK) — An Alabama judge has partially blocked the state’s gender-affirming trans youth care ban.

S.B. 184, the Vulnerable Child Protection Act, states that anyone who provides gender-affirming care to anyone under 19 could be convicted of a felony and face up to 10 years in prison and a $15,000 fine.

Judge Liles Burke blocked part of the Alabama law that banned prescriptions for gender-affirming puberty blockers and hormones, as the case is litigated.

He left in place other parts of the law, including the ban on gender-affirming surgeries that physicians say are already banned.

Burke will also allow the provision that requires school officials to tell parents if a minor discloses they are transgender.

The ban went into effect on May 8 and left physicians and families across the state rushing to figure out how best to provide care for their young transgender patients before the ban took place.

“It was a scramble, trying to gather as many names as possible of the kids that we see in our clinic and make sure that they do have refills called in before the law took effect,” pediatric endocrinologist Hussein Abdul-Latif told ABC News.

Burke held a two-day hearing before the ban went into effect to hear from doctors, researchers, families and more about the legislation and its impact.

Many at the hearing pointed out that the legislation is riddled with misinformation about hormone therapy, puberty blockers and gender reassignment surgery.

The claims made in the legislation — including the falsehood that hormone and puberty blockers have negative health impacts or cause infertility in trans youth — have been debunked by physicians who spoke to ABC News, as well as researchers at Yale University and the University of Texas Southwestern.

GLBTQ Legal Advocates & Defenders (GLAD), alongside other LGBTQ advocacy groups, is suing Gov. Kay Ivey, alongside the state attorney general, in opposition of the trans care ban.

“A state cannot criminalize parents and doctors for following medical guidelines and providing needed medical treatments,” NCLR Senior Staff Attorney and Transgender Youth Project Director Asaf Orr said in a statement on the lawsuit.

Orr continued, “This is a blatantly unconstitutional bill that will cause enormous stress and harm to Alabama families and cost Alabama taxpayers millions of dollars to defend.”

Ivey’s office did not respond to ABC News’ request for comment.

A similar law was halted in Arkansas last year when a federal judge issued an injunction.

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(DALLAS) — The shooting of three Korean women in a hair salon in the city’s Koreatown on Wednesday afternoon could be hate motivated, Dallas police said, and may be linked to a series of recent shootings at Asian run businesses in the city.

The shooting victims at the Hair World Salon in a historically Asian district were all Korean women — the salon owner, an employee and a customer, according to ABC affiliate station WFAA in Dallas. The women suffered nonfatal injuries and were transported to a local hospital, according to police.

Dallas Police Chief Eddie Garcia said at a press conference on Friday that initially police “did not have any indication that this crime was hate motivated,” but as of Friday afternoon, “that just changed.”

Garcia said that amid the investigation, law enforcement “concluded three recent shootings of Asian run businesses may be connected” and the suspect in each incident was driving a similar vehicle.

On 5/11/22 at 2:20 p.m. 3 female victims were shot at the World Salon on Royal Ln. The suspect is described as a Black male 5’7” to 5’10” thin build with curly hair and beard. Contact Detective T. Johnston at 214.671.3523 or timothy.johnston@dallascityhall.com if you have info. pic.twitter.com/gZ81P62BN7

— Dallas Police Dept (@DallasPD) May 12, 2022

The Dallas Police Department released a security camera image Thursday of the assailant dressed all in black running from the salon following the 2 p.m. shooting. The man appeared to be holding a semiautomatic rifle with an extended magazine clip.

Police said they learned from a witness report that an unknown Black male parked what appeared to be “a dark color minivan-type vehicle” on Royal Lane and then walked across the parking lot into the establishment and allegedly opened fire as soon as he entered the salon.

“The suspect then fired multiple rounds inside the business, wounded all three victims,” police said.

Police also released a security image of a maroon minivan they said the gunmen fled the scene in. The gunman was described by police as 5-foot-7 to 5-foot-10, thin with curly hair and a beard.

Garcia said that the shooting at the salon may be linked to a shooting that happened a day before and one that took place last month.

Police learned from witness reports that on April 2 a driver in a red minivan drove past a strip mall of Asian run businesses and fired shots at three businesses, but no one was injured.

And on Tuesday a suspect in a burgundy van or car drove by and shot into Asian run businesses near 4849 Sunnyvale Street, but no one was injured.

“Out of an abundance of caution, we have reached out to our partners to make them aware of the possible connection and ask for their assistance,” Garcia said. “This includes the FBI and member agencies of the Joint Terrorism Task Force. We are also working with North Texas police partners to determine if this criminal action has or is taking place in their jurisdictions.”

Garcia said that police will be increasing the presence of high visibility patrol officers in areas in the city where there are large Asian American populations.

“We are turning to every resident of the city of Dallas to keep an eye out and safeguard our city,” Garcia said. “Hate has no place here.”

These incidents in Dallas come amid a spate of attacks targeting Asian Americans across the nation, which spiked amid the COVID-19 pandemic.

“The possibility that we are dealing with a violent gunman who is motivated by hate is chilling and deeply disturbing,” Dallas Mayor Eric Johnson said in a statement on Friday.

“And I want our Asian American community – which has appallingly faced increased vitriol in recent years – to know that the city of Dallas and the people of Dallas stand with them,” he added.

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(NEW YORK) — A 1-year-girl was released from a New York hospital Friday nearly four months after she was shot in the face.

Catherine, whose mother described her as “our beautiful miracle baby,” was initially hospitalized in critical condition at NewYork-Presbyterian Komansky Children’s Hospital following the Jan. 19 shooting in the Bronx.

Since February, she has been hospitalized at Blythedale Children’s Hospital in Valhalla, Westchester County, for extensive rehabilitation to relearn how to walk, talk and eat. She walked out of the hospital while holding her parents’ hands to cheers from hospital staff and officers from the New York Police Department and the Westchester County Police Department.

“Our journey has been long, but finally, this is the light at the end of the tunnel,” her mother, Miraida Gomez, told reporters while holding Catherine outside the hospital.

“We’re definitely happy, we’re eager to start this new chapter in our life, and just happy that everyone is able to witness a miracle,” she said.

Catherine was struck by a stray bullet days before her first birthday while in a parked car with her mother outside a grocery store, waiting for her father who was inside the store, police said.

A man chasing another man fired two shots, hitting the baby in the face, police said.

Recalling that day, Gomez said she was “numb.”

“I don’t think I could describe my emotions all at once,” she said.

New York City Mayor Eric Adams called the shocking incident “a wake up call.”

“It should be unimaginable that this would happen in our city. But it did,” he said on social media at the time.

“Leaders at every level have abandoned city streets. I won’t,” he said.

Gomez said they weren’t sure what the outcome would be following the shooting.

“It was really gloomy. It felt like there was a dark cloud over us because everything was unknown,” she said.

Due to her injuries, the toddler had developed hemiparesis, a paralysis of her right side that affected her ability to eat, walk or use her right arm, the hospital said.

Today, she is a “super bubbly” toddler who loves to climb and is able to walk, “which is something they told us might not happen,” Gomez said.

“She’s beat all odds against her, gratefully,” Gomez said. “I want to say that her journey has also been miraculous compared to what we were always told, and we’re just happy to share this with everyone.”

Authorities are still looking for the shooter, who police said fled the scene in a gray four-door sedan.

Bronx District Attorney Darcel Clark vowed that the city would not stop looking until the gunman was caught.

“You could continue to go out there and think you’re going to get away with it, but you’re not going to get away with it,” Clark told ABC New York station WABC in the wake of the shooting. “We’re going to find you eventually, because we’re not going to stop looking.”

ABC News’ Emily Shapiro contributed to this report.

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(NEW YORK) — Police are thinking differently about the undetermined death of a woman previously thought to have been killed in a rash of prostitute murders on Long Island, New York.

Suffolk County police on Friday released three 911 calls made on May 1, 2010, the day Shannan Gilbert, a sex worker, vanished near Oak Beach.

Though the 2010 search for Gilbert led police to discover the Gilgo Beach murder victims, Suffolk County police said Friday that the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit concluded that Gilbert’s death isn’t consistent with homicide.

Gilbert’s cause of death is undetermined and was most likely an accident, police said.

In the early hours of May 1, 2010, Gilbert was driven from New York City to Oak Beach to meet a client, Joseph Brewer, police said.

“Gilbert’s driver remained in the area while she met with Brewer,” police said in a statement. “During the meeting, Gilbert reportedly began acting irrational, prompting her client to contact the driver to have Gilbert leave his home.”

Gilbert called 911 from Brewer’s house. Police noted that at times on the call Gilbert spoke calmly but slurred her words. At other points on the call she was non-responsive, and at other points she screamed, police said. She told the operator, “There’s somebody after me.”

Gilbert eventually left Brewer’s home and ran to the house of another resident, who called 911. The third 911 call was made by another resident when Gilbert knocked on her door.

An investigation found Gilbert’s death “was most likely non-criminal,” Suffolk County Police Commissioner Rodney Harrison told reporters Friday.

Brewer and Gilbert’s driver have been cleared of any criminal involvement in her death, police said.

However, Gilbert’s family hired a private pathologist to conduct an autopsy; while that pathologist determined there’s insufficient information to determine a definite cause of death, he found her death is consistent with homicidal strangulation, police said.

Harrison told reporters, “Shannan was a loving daughter, sister and a young woman who should have had a whole life ahead of her, regardless of the circumstances surrounding her death. Her unfortunate passing is tragic.”

Police said they are “committed to evaluating any information or evidence that the public may have to help determine a definitive cause of death.”

The investigation into the unsolved Gilgo Beach murders started more than 11 years ago when Suffolk County police, searching for Gilbert, discovered the body of Melissa Barthelemy along Ocean Parkway. The remains of 10 people were found in 2010 and 2011 in the weedy sections off Ocean Parkway near Jones Beach. At the time, police said half of the identified victims worked as prostitutes.

A $50,000 reward is available for information leading to an arrest in the Gilgo Beach murders.

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(HOT SPRINGS, Ark.) — Police in Hot Springs, Arkansas, said they arrested a man after a shooting left one person dead and three others injured following a high school graduation.

The three injured were transported to local hospitals to be treated and suffered non-life threatening injuries, according to the Hot Springs Police Department.

Police say the shooting occurred after a large fight broke out in a parking lot across from a convention center where the ceremony was being held for Hot Springs World Class High School on Thursday night.

“During the fight, HSPD officers and Garland County deputies were on scene attempting to defuse the situation when a single gunman began shooting into the crowd. Officers of the HSPD returned fire on the suspect, later identified as Charles Johnson,” Officer Omar Cervantes, a spokesperson for the HSPD, told ABC News in a statement on Friday.

Johnson, 25, was wounded, but able to flee the scene, Cervantes said. He was later arrested while getting treatment for his wounds at a local hospital, he said. Johnson has been charged with one count of murder in the first degree and three counts of battery.

Arkansas State Police are investigating the officer-involved shooting and the officers involved have been placed on administrative leave with pay until the investigation is complete, Cervantes said.

Hot Springs Superintendent Dr. Stephanie Nehus acknowledged the incident in a Facebook update on Friday saying school counselors and staff will be working with students who witnessed events.

“We are heartbroken that these violent events took place following such a beautiful celebration for our graduates and their families. Our Law Enforcement Officers and staff will continue to do all that we can to collaborate with local law enforcement agencies/officials to complete an investigation,” Nehus said.

No current students or graduates were involved in the incident, Nehus said in an earlier post. “Our hearts and thoughts are with all individuals who suffered injuries tonight,” she said.

Hot Springs is about an hour west of Little Rock, Arkansas.

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(NEW YORK) — Delaware State University announced plans to file a civil rights complaint with the U.S. Department of Justice over what its president called a “constitutionally dubious” drug search of a bus transporting its women’s lacrosse team through Georgia last month.

The historically Black university intends to file the complaint next week, alleging “misconduct” by the Liberty County Sheriff’s Office, the school’s president, Tony Allen, said during a press briefing Friday.

Allen did not go into detail on the contents of the complaint ahead of the filing, but said that “from our standpoint, the evidence is clear and compelling.”

“What we believe is that the search was conducted inappropriately, and there was implicit racial bias in the search,” he said, noting that the lacrosse team is 70% African American.

The university is seeking “justice” for the student-athletes, who may choose to pursue legal action on their own, Allen said.

Liberty County deputies pulled the bus over for an alleged traffic violation that then turned into a drug search. Nothing illegal was found, authorities and school officials said.

The incident, which occurred on April 20, came to light after one of the team’s lacrosse players wrote about the search in the school’s newspaper last week with the headline, “Delaware State Women’s Lacrosse Team Felt Racially Profiled by Police in Georgia.” The player also released a video of part of the deputies’ interactions with the team.

The team’s head coach, Pamella Jenkins, also charged that it was an incident of racial profiling in interview with ABC Philadelphia station WPVI.

In response to the allegations, Liberty County Sheriff William Bowman said this week that there was probable cause for the luggage search due to an alert from a K9.

“Although I do not believe any racial profiling took place based on the information I currently have, I welcome feedback from our community on ways that our law enforcement practices can be improved while still maintaining the law,” he said.

The sheriff’s office also released body-camera footage of the incident, during which a deputy can be heard telling the student-athletes to come forward with anything “questionable.”

“Marijuana is still illegal in the state of Georgia,” he said.

Prior to conducting the search, the deputy can be heard while in his cruiser saying, “There’s a bunch of dang school girls on the bus. There’s probably some weed. Maybe.”

The university contacted Delaware Attorney General Kathleen Jennings about the incident, who this week wrote to the U.S. Department of Justice’s Civil Rights Division “urging a full examination,” she said.

In her letter, Jennings said she was “deeply troubled” by what happened.

“By all accounts these young women represented their school and our state with class — and they were rewarded with a questionable-at-best search through their belongings in an effort to find contraband that did not exist,” she wrote. “Not only did the deputies find nothing illegal in the bags; they did not issue a single ticket for the alleged traffic infraction.”

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(DALLAS) — Haley Taylor Schlitz made headlines in 2019 after getting accepted into nine law schools. She was just 16 at the time.

Now, after three years of classes, long nights, clerkships and internships – and a pandemic to boot – Taylor Schlitz is ready to step into her next chapter.

The 19-year-old from Keller, Texas, graduates from Southern Methodist University’s Dedman School of Law on Friday and will become the Dallas law school’s youngest Black student to do so, the school confirmed to “Good Morning America.”

“We are incredibly proud of Haley and all she has accomplished during her time at SMU Law School. We know she is going to make a difference in this world, and we can’t wait to see all the wonderful places her career will take her,” SMU Dedman School of Law Professor Jennifer Collins told “GMA” in an emailed statement.

Schlitz told “GMA” it feels surreal to finally be graduating but is ready for her big day.

“It’s just been a lot of buildup and it’s really exciting to take off,” the student said.

She’ll be celebrating this weekend with her family, including her mother, father and siblings before she gets cracking on her bar exam studies next Monday. “My village is a huge part of my motivation to keep going,” Schlitz said.

“My mom has been probably my absolute biggest motivator, my biggest supporter, the person that I look up to the most,” she continued. “She’s an ER doctor and so for the longest time, I wanted to be an ER doctor, but even after wanting to be an attorney, and now going to law school, she’s still somebody that is such a huge life counselor, such a great advisor for me.”

When she stopped by the “GMA” studio three years ago, Schlitz said she wanted to “help other students and fight for equity” and with law school wrapped up, she wants to do just that.

“I absolutely feel that even more strongly now,” Schlitz said. “It’s so much more tangible. I’m so close to actually being able to make that impact that I’ve been talking about … write that legislation, really get active.”

Schlitz, who cited criminal law and torts law as her two favorite law school courses, hopes to work in educational policy or teach. “I have quite a few job offers and right now, it just depends on where I want to be in the country,” she said.

For others searching for their own success, Schlitz said she had one key message for them.

“You don’t find your path. You make it,” she said. “Take life by the reins, by the horns, and just really make what you want your reality.”

She also encouraged people to take advantage of opportunities and not to be afraid to take chances.

“It’s OK to make mistakes,” Schlitz said.

She went on, “Just go back to your foundation and build up again and don’t be confined to boxes or stereotypes or when other people are trying to say whether it’s no or yes. It’s really up to you.”

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