The first meeting of Uvalde Consolidated Independent Schools District (UCISD), after the mass shooting, saw no action taken by members against Pete Arredondo, chief school police officer.
This meeting, which began with prayer, was called to respond to the attack on Robb Elementary School’s May 24th massacre that claimed 19 lives and left two teachers.
According to The Texas Tribune, the agenda permitted the board to remove Arredondo from the meeting, but they refused to do so.
The first portion of the meeting was attended by Superintendent Hal Harrell, who expressed his sympathy to the families of the victims. He also called the teachers killed “heroes”
He also stated to parents that the Texas school would never allow their children to return.
One mother was one of two people who spoke to the board. She said that her seven-year-old son is afraid of school.
Harrell stated that he was eager for investigations to be completed, but there wasn’t any additional information.
The board will meet again in the afternoon on June 20.
Arredondo was absent from the meeting, and the Tribune reported that he is a “man in hiding” — even from the state police who are investigating the shooting.
In a private ceremony, he was sworn into office as a member of the city council.
Over his slow response to that day, the 50-year-old has been under fire.
Salvador Ramos (18 years old) spent approximately 80 minutes in the school. According to an official timeline, it took more than an hour for Salvador Ramos to be killed after he was followed into the school by the first officers.
Steven McCraw, head of the Texas Department of Public Safety said that Arredondo believed the active shooting had become a hostage situation and that he made “the wrong decision” not to order officers to enter the classroom.
Ramos shot more than 100 shots, and 17 other people were hurt in the shooting.
Sen. Roland Gutierrez stated to The Associated Press on Friday that a Texas Department of Public Safety official informed him that Arredondo wasn’t carrying a radio and that he had never been told that children were calling 911 from the school.
Authorities are not able to say how Arredondo communicated with law enforcement officers at the scene.
