Parents fume over Uvalde school board’s inaction in first meeting since shooting
Texas school officials said students would never return to the elementary school where 19 fourth-graders and two teachers were slaughtered last month — but took zero action against the embattled police chief who led cops’ botched response.
The Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District board held its first meeting Friday night since the May 24 tragedy at Robb Elementary School and largely kept parents in the dark after going into a closed session.
“We want answers to where the security is going to take place,” Angela Turner, a Uvalde parent who lost her niece in the shooting, told CNN.
“This was all a joke. I’m so disappointed in our school district.”
Superintendent Hal Harrell told parents at the meeting that students would not be returning to the school — but then shut down the meeting and went into a long closed-door session without ever addressing the district’s police chief Pete Arredondo, who made the fateful decision to not breach the classroom door where gunman Salvador Ramos was holed up with two classrooms full of kids.
“These people will not have a job if we stand together and we do not let our kids go here,” Turner told CNN.
Outrage has grown over cops’ response to the mass shooting as it was revealed Arredondo, who was in command at the scene, held cops back for more than an hour while Ramos killed 19 fourth-graders and two school teachers.
Meanwhile, frightened students called 911 for help from inside the school and frantic parents were held back by police outside the school.
Arredondo, who was elected to a seat on the city council earlier this year, was secretly sworn into office last week after a council meeting was canceled.
“Nobody’s been disciplined for this,” railed Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-San Antonio) to CNN. “There’s been no repercussions at all for what many have described as one of the worst law enforcement failures in American history.”
“All of us, the American people, have seen the story and the version of the story changed four or five times now.”
Castro, who called on the FBI to investigate the police response last week, called it “odd and disturbing that the school board didn’t take any action to at least put the chief on administrative leave while everything is sorted out.”
The congressman said local officials are not cooperating with the state’s investigation — despite the state’s largest police union imploring its members to help with the probe.
Last week, the Department of Justice said it would launch an independent probe of police actions on the request of Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin.
