Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, where 19 children and two teachers were senselessly murdered by a gunman, is set to be demolished. A new school will be rebuilt in its place.
The mayor of Uvalde, Don McLaughlin, said during a city council meeting last night that the plan is to level the school. “My understanding—I had a discussion with the superintendent—that school will be demolished,” McLaughlin said after being asked what the future of the school looked like. “We could never ask a child to go back, or a teacher to go back into that school ever.”
Texas state senator Roland Gutierrez, who represents Uvalde, told KSAT in San Antonio in late May that he spoke with President Biden, who shared that the federal government was already looking into leveling the school and rebuilding a new one.
Congressman Joaquin Castro, who represents San Antonio, also called for the elementary school to be torn down and replaced.
When I met with Uvalde families, they told me how worried they are about children going back to Robb Elementary.
No child should have to return to the scene of this tragedy. Along w/state, local & federal leaders, I'll work to get Uvalde any money it needs to build a new school. pic.twitter.com/KADJbaHQnI
— Joaquin Castro (@JoaquinCastrotx) May 29, 2022
He tweeted, “No child should have to return to the scene of this.”
Sandy Hook, the site of another mass shooting where 20 children and six educators were killled, was also demolished and rebuilt in 2016.
Yesterday, Department of Public Safety Director Steve McCraw also appeared before a Texas Senate committee to discuss the police response to the May 24 mass shooting in more detail, and the picture he shared is nothing short of horrifying.
#BREAKING #Uvalde Mayor says Robb Elementary will be demolished.
— Ellen McNamara (@Fox10Ellen) June 22, 2022
McCraw did not mince words, calling the police conduct that day “an abject failure” and said if they’d done their job, the shooter could have been stopped within three minutes.
“The officers had weapons; the children had none,” McCraw said during the hearing. “The officers had body armor; the children had none. The officers had training; the subject had none. One hour, 14 minutes and eight seconds. That’s how long children waited, and the teachers waited, in Room 111 to be rescued.”
Robb Elementary School will not be the first school to be demolished as a result of a mass shooting.
Sandy Hook in Newtown, was also destroyed in 2012 after 20 students and six staff members were killed by gunfire.
A new school was eventually built on the same plot of land.
— BNN Newsroom (@BNNBreaking) June 22, 2022
McCraw identified the man he believes is responsible, Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District Police Chief Pete Arredondo, who was the commanding officer at the scene and who chose not to enter the classroom for over an hour. At the time, Arredondo said he was waiting for a key to unlock the classroom door even though he and other officers were heavily armed.
Surveillance video from the scene now shows that officers did not try to open the doors, which were found to be unlocked.
“I don’t mean to be hyper-critical of the on-scene commander,” McCraw testified. “But those are the facts. This set our profession back a decade.”
