Uvalde school police chief could become 1st officer to lose job over mass shooting

The embattled faculty police chief in Uvalde, Texas, may on Wednesday grow to be the primary officer to lose his job over the hesitant response by tons of of closely armed legislation enforcement personnel in the course of the Could bloodbath at Robb Elementary Faculty.

The Uvalde Consolidated Impartial Faculty District was set to decide on Pete Arredondo’s future, three months to the day after a gunman killed 19 kids and two lecturers in one of many deadliest classroom assaults in U.S. historical past.

The assembly comes lower than two weeks earlier than the brand new faculty 12 months begins in Uvalde.

Arredondo, who has been on administrative depart since June, has come beneath probably the most scrutiny for his actions in the course of the Could 24 tragedy. State police and a damning investigative report in July have criticized the police chief of the roughly 4,000-student faculty district for failing to take cost of the scene, not breaching the classroom sooner and losing time by searching for a key to a possible unlocked door.

Ninety days after the bloodbath, the absence of any firings have annoyed many Uvalde residents and amplified calls for for accountability. Investigations and physique digicam footage have laid naked how police rushed to the scene with bulletproof shields and high-powered rifles inside minutes — however waited greater than an hour earlier than lastly confronting the gunman in a classroom of fourth-graders.

An lawyer for Arredondo didn’t reply to an electronic mail Tuesday.

Mounting stress

Uvalde faculty officers have been beneath mounting stress from victims’ households and members of the group, lots of whom have referred to as for Arredondo’s termination. Superintendent Hal Harrell had first moved to fireside Arredondo in July however postponed the choice on the request of the police chief’s lawyer.

Just one different police official on the scene, Lt. Mariano Pargas, is thought to have been positioned on depart because the taking pictures. Pargas was town’s performing police chief in the course of the bloodbath.

The Texas Division of Public Security, which had greater than 90 state troopers on the scene, has additionally launched an inside investigation into the response by state police.

Faculty officers have stated the campus at Robb Elementary will now not be used. As an alternative, campuses elsewhere in Uvalde will function short-term school rooms for elementary faculty college students, not all of whom are prepared to return to high school in particular person following the taking pictures.

Faculty officers say a digital academy might be supplied for college students. The district has not stated what number of college students will attend just about, however a brand new state legislation handed final 12 months in Texas following the pandemic limits the variety of eligible college students receiving distant instruction to “10 per cent of all enrolled college students inside a given faculty system.”

Faculties can search a waiver to exceed the restrict however Uvalde has not achieved so, based on Melissa Holmes, a spokeswoman for the Texas Training Company.

Security measures

New measures to enhance faculty security in Uvalde embrace “eight-foot, non-scalable perimeter fencing” at elementary, center and highschool campuses, based on the college district. Officers say they’ve additionally put in extra safety cameras, upgraded locks and enhanced coaching for district employees and bettering communication.

Nonetheless, based on the district’s personal progress experiences, as of Tuesday no fencing had been erected at six of the eight campuses the place it was deliberate, and cameras had solely been put in at the highschool. Some progress had been made on locks at three of eight campuses, and communication enchancment was marked as half full for every campus.

Uvalde CISD didn’t instantly reply to a request for remark.