The facilities of the Robb Elementary School in Uvalde (Texas) are permanently closed. A new enclosure will house the children of this school, still fearful after losing 19 classmates and two teachers in the shooting that occurred last May. The change of pedagogical center will not be the only change for the course that is about to begin.
The school board voted unanimously on Wednesday to fire the chief of the school police, Pete Arredondo, as a result of the disastrous operation deployed to neutralize the gunman and that lasted more than 70 minutes since he entered the campus.
The dismissal comes three months after that scandalous action, a delay more than criticized in this town.
Before the vote was held in a specially convened school council, a speaker who appeared to be a child said the following. “I have a message for Pete Arredondo and all the law enforcement officers who were there that day: turn in your badge and resign. You don't deserve to have one,” he stated.
Arredondo was not present at that meeting, convened precisely to discuss his employment status. In a statement, George Hyde, Arredondo's lawyer, assured that the police command received death threats and did not believe that this meeting had security measures to protect him.
The lawyer pointed out that the dismissal of a public job, in circumstances that put at stake the reputation, honor or integrity of the official, offers the constitutional virtue of the equality clause. "In these circumstances, people are entitled to procedural opportunities to clear their names," he stressed.
Hyde described Arredondo as a victim or scapegoat for those affected by the massacre. Instead of lashing out at the gunman, who was fatally shot by a police officer, those affected have "seeked more retribution by identifying a new target on which to focus their pain, in the belief that this will help them stop suffering," he said.
"Unfortunately, this will not be the case," insisted the lawyer. “Retribution will not bring anyone back. It is a hollow reward and will only spread more pain and suffering, in an unfair and biased way,” he reiterated.
The reply came on Twitter. Jazmin Cazares, whose sister was killed in the shooting, said she appreciated the school board "because they finally listened to us." But he clarified that "we are not going to applaud them for doing something they should have done months ago."
A scathing Texas House of Representatives report released last month called the police action an "abject failure." That document stated that there were "systemic failures and extremely poor decision-making" in the uniformed response. Under the plan designed for this type of emergency, Arredondo should have been the head of the operation, but, on the contrary, he did not assume that responsibility that he had been assigned.
Hundreds of police officers waited an hour and 14 minutes to decide to enter the classroom where the gunman had stationed himself.
