In Honor of Isya: Turning Our Pain Into Purpose

A Speech by Regina Jones

Good evening, everyone.

My name is Regina Jones, and today I stand before you not only as a mother, but as a mother whose life was forever changed by gun violence.

My daughter, Isya Stanley, was beautiful, loving, full of life, and had so much ahead of her. She graduated from Freire Charter School in 2024, where she played basketball and ran track. She had dreams, goals, and a future. She was preparing for the next chapter of her life and was on her way to Morgan State University.

But just four days after her graduation, gun violence took my daughter from me.

Isya was an innocent bystander. She did not deserve what happened to her. No mother should have to bury her child. No family should have to live with an empty chair, an unanswered phone, or memories becoming the only thing they have left to hold onto.

Losing Isya changed me forever, but it also gave me a purpose that I never asked for.

I decided that I could not allow my daughter's story to end with the way she died. I want people to remember how she lived. I want them to remember her beautiful soul, her smile, her love for her family, her involvement in her community, and the young people whose lives she touched.

That is why I continue to fight.

I fight for justice for Isya. I fight for mothers who are grieving behind closed doors. I fight for families who are still waiting for answers. And I fight because our children deserve to walk through their neighborhoods without becoming another victim of gun violence.

Through Beyond the Tears, my education in criminal justice, and my goal of becoming a private investigator, I am turning my pain into purpose. I want to help families who feel forgotten. I want grieving mothers to know that their children's names still matter and their stories deserve to be heard.

But this fight cannot belong only to mothers who have lost children.

It belongs to all of us.

We have to speak up. We have to mentor our young people. We have to support families affected by violence. We have to teach our children that picking up a gun can change more than one life - it can destroy families and impact entire communities for generations.

I will never stop saying my daughter's name.

Isya Stanley.

I will continue wearing red in her honor. I will continue fighting for justice. I will continue helping other families. And I will continue building something meaningful from the pain that I carry every single day.

Isya may no longer be physically standing beside me, but she is the reason I keep standing.

This is bigger than me. This is bigger than one family.

We are fighting for Isya. We are fighting for every life taken by gun violence. And we are fighting for every child who still has a chance to come home.

Thank you.