Former Uvalde schools police Chief Pete Arredondo asked a state district court on Friday to quash ten felony charges of child endangerment for his response to the 2022 Robb Elementary School shooting.

Arredondo is one of two law enforcement officers who face criminal charges for their response to Texas鈥� deadliest school shooting, which left nineteen children and two teachers dead on May 22, 2022. An indictment handed down in June by a Uvalde County grand jury called Arredondo the incident commander and accused him of to ten children by delaying law enforcement鈥檚 response to the active shooter and not responding as trained.

In their motion to toss out the indictment, Arredondo鈥檚 lawyers say school districts and their employees don鈥檛 have a duty to protect students from third-party threats. The lawyers also point out that the children were already in danger when Arredondo responded.

鈥淭he indictment does not allege that Mr. Arredondo engaged in any conduct that placed a child in imminent danger of death, bodily injury, or physical or mental impairment,鈥� the filing states. 鈥淭o the contrary, the language in the indictment itself makes clear that when Mr. Arredondo responded as part of his official duties, an active shooter incident was already in progress.鈥�

Arredondo that he did not think he was the incident commander and that he did not give any orders. Nearly 400 local, state and federal law enforcement officers descended upon the school but failed to act decisively, instead waiting for more than an hour to confront the gunman.

Border Patrol agents ultimately decided to breach the classroom and killed the shooter.

Since the school shooting, families of Uvalde victims have called on local and state elected officials to hold officers accountable for their failures in leadership. Many said they were disappointed that the grand jury indicted only two officers.

In addition to Arredondo, former district officer Adrian Gonzales was indicted on 29 counts of child endangerment. Gonzales violating school district policy or state law. Both officers were released from Uvalde County Jail on bond.

Uvalde District Attorney Christina Mitchell did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

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Uvalde is a vibrant rural community where people truly care for one another. We have terrific businesses, educators, parents and community members who are invested in our students’ success. But all over this beautiful community, individuals are still trying to recover and rebuild from the tragedy that struck two years ago, when a gunman attacked Robb Elementary School and killed 19 children and two teachers.

In confronting the array of challenges inherent in both rebuilding and managing a public school district, I have found it crystal clear that local initiatives require reinforcement through increased federal support to effectively serve community needs.

This week is Public Schools Week. I am proud to be in Washington, D.C., advocating to members of Congress and the administration for my school district during this important celebration of public education. I have one simple message for them, one that all school superintendents nationwide would likely agree with: Our students need more support.

Even in Uvalde, where generous private donors like Charles Butt and the Uvalde Moving Forward Foundation have stepped up to help rebuild, and organizations like Camila and Matthew McConaughey鈥檚 Greenlights Grant Initiative are helping us apply for federal school safety funding, we are still facing major shortfalls for critical needs. These include $20 million still needed to finish paying for the replacement for Robb Elementary.

While Congress and the administration should be credited for passing the Bipartisan Safer Communities Act in response to the shooting in Uvalde, the funding that was dedicated to help districts address youth mental health and to prevent school violence is insufficient for the numerous challenges the country faces. 

Currently, all federal school safety dollars must be applied for through grants, so Uvalde has to compete with districts across America for funding for essential programs and personnel. In districts that can hire a $40,000 grant writer and have completed applications before, it鈥檚 no big deal. For high-needs, low-capacity districts like mine, having to complete a 30-page application that could take 100 hours or so in hopes of persuading a bureaucrat to give us funding to buy a tracking system for behavioral threat assessments or hire another school psychologist is not good policy.

There is no greater responsibility of the federal government than protecting the next generation and equipping them with the tools necessary to succeed. Right now, it is failing on both counts.

For example, the COPS School Violence Prevention Program grant provides funding for cameras, training and other common-sense measures that every school needs. Last year, more than 1,000 districts ; only 206 grants were awarded. That means 800 educational institutions took the time and resources to apply for federal funding to protect their children but were denied support. With the threat environment as it is today, that is unacceptable. This problem can be solved with more money and better procedures that make it easier for districts of all sizes and means to apply.

Next month, the Senate will unveil the CARE for Student Mental Health Act, a measure that would make it easier for the federal government to target funding for school mental health personnel and programs to high-needs districts. It would also make it easier for districts to find out about these opportunities and apply for them, and it would designate a portion of funding for rural districts that have historically struggled to compete with large, well-resourced school systems for federal dollars.

This is a great start, but there must be significant policy and funding improvements if America hopes to secure the nation’s schools and give children the support they need to be successful. Already this year, there have been school shootings. The money and heartache it takes to recover from these tragedies is far greater than the money districts needed to prevent them.

Budgets are value statements, so as Congress finalizes federal funding levels for the 2024-25 school year, I want them to know they must do better to ensure that districts 鈥� particularly those that are small and rural, like mine 鈥� receive more aid for school safety and mental health resources to ensure student success.

I urge all those who are interested in furthering school safety to encourage their lawmakers to advocate for funding and policy changes that will make sure that the next generation of doctors, farmers, lawyers, teachers and innovators has the safe, caring environment necessary to thrive in school.

This story was written by  and photographed by .

For 24/7 mental health support in English or Spanish, call the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration鈥檚 at 800-662-4357. You can also reach a trained crisis counselor through the by calling or texting 988.

UVALDE 鈥� At 7 a.m. on a Monday in February, Jessica Trevi帽o, with squinty eyes, goes into her sons鈥� bedroom and in a low, raspy voice tells them to wake up. Eleven-year-old David James rolls out of bed, but 9-year-old Austin, the youngest of the four Trevi帽o children, doesn鈥檛 move from the lower bunk bed.

The siblings get ready for school. David James grabs the car keys and starts the family鈥檚 black Ram 1500 truck for his mother.

Austin, who is still in bed covered by a blanket, tells his mother he doesn鈥檛 want to go to school.

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鈥淚 can鈥檛 leave you by yourself,鈥� Jessica, 40, tells him, leaning over his body as their fat bulldog, Chubs, tries to jump on the bed. 鈥淵ou have to go to school.鈥�

Austin doesn鈥檛 move. The night before, the sound of police sirens woke him.

鈥淚t鈥檚 鈥檆ause there were cop sounds last night so he鈥檚 kinda scared,鈥� David James tells his mother.

It鈥檚 not the first time one of the children won鈥檛 go to school because something spooked them. And Jessica knows it won鈥檛 be the last.

Three of the four Trevi帽o children were students at Robb Elementary on May 24, 2022, and were on campus for an awards ceremony as an 18-year-old approached the school.

That day, Jessica picked up David James, Austin and her now 12-year-old daughter, Illia帽a, from the school about 11:30 a.m.

Jessica later found out that as she was driving off, the shooter had just walked into a classroom, killing two teachers and 19 students 鈥� including Illia帽a鈥檚 best friend, a , who was Illia帽a鈥檚 defender when other children made fun of her.

A few days after the shooting, Jessica took Illia帽a, whom she calls Nana, to Uvalde鈥檚 plaza to leave a teddy bear and flowers at a memorial for her friend. Suddenly, Illia帽a鈥檚 heart began to race and she had trouble breathing. Jessica took her to the local hospital, which transferred her to an intensive care unit in San Antonio. The doctor there told Jessica that Illia帽a was suffering cardiac arrest and her body shut down from acute stress. She was released after a week.

鈥淣ana was born with a heart of gold,鈥� Jessica says. 鈥淪o when it breaks, that鈥檚 how she reacted.鈥�

Now, things like the sound of police sirens, people yelling 鈥� just about any loud sound 鈥� can be triggers for Austin and Illia帽a, who have developed post-traumatic stress disorder because of the shooting.

This morning, Jessica convinces Austin to get out of bed but agrees to let him miss school. She goes to the kitchen to get Illia帽a鈥檚 antidepressant and anti-anxiety medicine from a lunch bag filled with prescription bottles. Then she hands Austin the pink ear protectors he uses to block out noise.

Austin says he puts them on 鈥渙nly when I hear the screams.鈥�

Jessica said Austin鈥檚 therapist has told her that the kids may talk about the shooting like they were there in an unconscious attempt to empathize with the children they saw at school every day.

In the aftermath of the school shooting in Uvalde, much of the public鈥檚 attention has focused on the families of the children who died at Robb Elementary. Artists from San Antonio painted murals all over downtown memorializing the students and teachers who were killed. A year later, the city鈥檚 plaza is still adorned with crosses and photos of those who died.

The shooting has also caused emotional and psychological damage to a generation of Uvalde children, particularly the more than 500 students who attended Robb last spring. For the Trevi帽o family, the shooting has reshaped their lives and influenced their children鈥檚 outlook on life. It has forced them to learn coping skills and learn how to be resilient.

Illia帽a, David James and Austin barely escaped the horror their fellow students endured 鈥� hiding in their classrooms and hearing gunshots and the screams of terrified children. They each lost friends and classmates in the massacre and are dealing with that trauma in their own way.

Illia帽a gets panic attacks, and David James and Austin have nightmares. Austin wets the bed at night and has accidents at school.

Illia帽a and Austin are in therapy. So is the family鈥檚 oldest child, 13-year-old Amelia帽a, who was in middle school last year and since the shooting has taken on the responsibility of helping to emotionally support her younger siblings. David James refuses to see a therapist.

Between 2018 and 2019, more than 100,000 American children attended a school where a shooting occurred, according to research co-authored by Maya Rossin-Slater, an associate professor at Stanford University School of Medicine.

鈥淲hile many students are physically unharmed, studies have consistently found consequences to their mental health, educational, and economic trajectories that last for years, and potentially decades, to come,鈥� .

Most people 鈥渄on鈥檛 think about the parents who had children who survived,鈥� says David, Jessica鈥檚 husband. 鈥淎ll the costs that we have to pay for because of the shooting, like therapy and other things.鈥�

Jessica says she gave the state-funded counseling at Uvalde鈥檚 new resiliency center a try for Illia帽a but didn鈥檛 like its practice of rotating staff, which meant her daughter couldn鈥檛 see the same counselor at every visit.

Jessica takes a sip from the first of four cups of coffee she will drink today and swallows a tablet for her oral chemotherapy. She was diagnosed with breast cancer in November but opted not to undergo radiation treatment because she fears it would sap the last of her energy.

鈥淚鈥檓 doing oral chemotherapy because otherwise I wouldn鈥檛 be able to take care of them,鈥� Jessica says, motioning toward her children. 鈥淎nd as you can tell, it鈥檚 a job to take care of them.鈥�

David, 42, stays in bed. He is paralyzed from the waist down, so it鈥檚 hard for him to help with the children in the mornings.

By 7:45 a.m., Jessica gets the four children in the truck and drops them off at their new schools: Illia帽a, David James and Austin attend Sacred Heart, the local private Catholic school, while Amelia帽a 鈥� an angsty teenager who鈥檚 easily annoyed by her mother鈥檚 advice 鈥� goes to Uvalde Classical Academy, a private high school. The Trevi帽os hoped their kids would be safer at private schools and that maybe Illia帽a wouldn鈥檛 face bullies.

After drop-offs, Jessica returns home with Austin, where she鈥檒l spend the day with him until it鈥檚 time to pick them up again. She quit her job cleaning vacation cabins shortly after the shooting so she could be around her children as much as possible. Now they survive on David鈥檚 disability checks and Jessica鈥檚 dwindling savings.

David says he sometimes feels helpless, knowing that he doesn鈥檛 have the tools to help his children cope with the trauma the shooting has caused.

鈥淚t鈥檚 hard for me because I鈥檓 the type of man that if there鈥檚 anything in the way of my family鈥檚 happiness, I would move it out of the way,鈥� he says. 鈥淏ut after [the shooting], there鈥檚 nothing to move out of the way, there鈥檚 nothing physically that I can do. It鈥檚 all mental. So that鈥檚 what makes it really hard for me.

鈥淚t鈥檚 just really hard because I know how my children were before the shooting.鈥�

February 21

On a Tuesday evening, Jessica takes Illia帽a and Amelia帽a to a park near the edge of town for softball practice. The Trevi帽os got all of the kids into basketball or softball after the shooting to help them stay busy. As her daughters join the other girls on the team, Jessica stands nearby, holding a can of Monster Energy drink. It helps offset the chemo pills, which make her lethargic.

A coach bats fly balls to the girls. Jessica looks on and laughs when she sees Illia帽a, who is twirling and dancing in place on the field, entertaining herself. Jessica says Illia帽a 鈥� a sassy preteen who enjoys drawing, reading Japanese comics and listening to rock music 鈥� joined the softball team mostly to spend time with her older sister, who takes the sport more seriously and dreams of playing on the Baylor University team.

Jessica treasures moments like this, when they can all forget what happened. But it instantly makes her feel guilty for enjoying her children. So many parents in Uvalde lost their children last year.

鈥淚t breaks my heart that I have mine and they don鈥檛,鈥� Jessica says. 鈥淭he guilt eats me up.

鈥淚 just feel so blessed to still have them with me.鈥�

In the first weeks after the shooting, Jessica gave media interviews explaining that while her children weren鈥檛 physically harmed, the tragedy affected their entire family鈥檚 mental health. She opened a GoFundMe account to help with their medical and therapy costs.

Most people were supportive, she said, but some strangers sent ugly messages, telling Jessica that her children don鈥檛 deserve help because they shouldn鈥檛 be considered survivors.

One person wrote: 鈥淲hy is Illia帽a getting help if she鈥檚 not one of the survivors?鈥�

Later in the evening, Jessica gets a call from Amelia帽a鈥檚 best friend鈥檚 mother, who tells Jessica that her daughter has troubling screenshots of a private chat group. A teenager in the group told the other participants that he hated Amelia帽a and threatened to hurt Amelia帽a鈥檚 father.

This worries Jessica enough that she goes to the police station to file a report, worried the boy may follow through on his threats.

Before May 24, Jessica says, she would have dismissed the incident.

鈥淏efore, I鈥檇 be like, 鈥楧茅jalo,鈥欌�� 鈥� let it go 鈥� 鈥溾�榯hey鈥檙e just kids talking shit,鈥欌�� she says. 鈥淏ut now you can鈥檛 second-guess yourself. Now that we know what could happen, now that we know kids have access to guns.鈥�

February 23

After dropping the kids off at school on Thursday, Jessica drives an hour and a half to San Antonio for a follow-up appointment with her cancer doctor. The MRI results show she has another nickel-sized tumor, but the other tumors have shrunk. The doctor says she can continue with oral chemotherapy but eventually she will have to go through radiation.

Jessica plans to push that off for as long as she can.

鈥淢y biggest priority right now is to keep Nana safe at school and deal with the bullying,鈥� Jessica says. 鈥淚 usually put what the kids need first before anything else.鈥�

The cancer isn鈥檛 her only worry: Before her diagnosis in November, Jessica developed desmoid tumors in her left leg 鈥� they aren鈥檛 cancerous, but they cause her constant discomfort.

鈥淚鈥檓 in a lot of pain,鈥� she says, rubbing her thigh as she picks up the boys鈥� clothes from the living room floor after returning from San Antonio. 鈥淯sually, it鈥檚 at night that I deal with a lot of pain, but I think it鈥檚 because it鈥檚 been hectic lately.鈥�

Doctors have told her that surgery is an option, but there鈥檚 a risk the tumors will grow back. The pain gets so bad that Jessica says she鈥檚 thought about amputating her legs.

鈥淢y doctor said, 鈥業鈥檓 game if you鈥檙e game.鈥� But we think about the kids a lot,鈥� Jessica says, standing over a pile of laundry before she goes back into the kitchen to season chicken for dinner.

* * *

Having both parents in wheelchairs isn鈥檛 an option. David does what he can to help Jessica, but in his mind it鈥檚 not enough.

鈥淚鈥檝e always worked, that鈥檚 how I was built,鈥� he said on a recent afternoon as he watered his lawn outside of their four-bedroom home on a quiet street shaded by large trees. 鈥淪ometimes I want to go to work but I can鈥檛.鈥�

As a boy, he earned money collecting lost golf balls at the local country club. As an adult, he worked in the oil fields, operated heavy machinery and then became a truck driver. In November 2019, he was driving an 18-wheeler on a rainy day and lost control. The rig rolled and threw him out of the cab. He survived but was paralyzed from the waist down.

Still, he helps around the house. He cooks, he plays basketball with the boys, he coaches Austin鈥檚 football team and he drives the kids to practice 鈥� he plays softball in a wheelchair league and connects with his children through sports. At his daughters鈥� softball games, he鈥檚 among the loudest parents.

Jessica and David met at a dance in 2008, two years after she had moved to Uvalde from her hometown of Houston. They started dating and nearly two years later Jessica was pregnant with Amelia帽a. They got married in July 2011.

Since the shooting, Jessica says she wants to move out of Uvalde. She wants her children to grow up somewhere far from reminders of the shooting.

鈥淚 want my kids to get better, but how can I do that if they鈥檙e in the same spot?鈥� she says.

David says he doesn鈥檛 want to move 鈥� he was born here and loves Uvalde too much. He says he wants his children to grow up with the same positive experiences he had.

Despite what happened at Robb, David still feels like Uvalde is a safe town 鈥� as safe as anywhere else anyway. He can go to El Herradero de Jalisco, a town watering hole, for Mexican food and see the same people there every time.

鈥淚 don鈥檛 have to worry about who鈥檚 around me and my kids,鈥� he says.

March 21

It鈥檚 a sunny afternoon in March, and Austin is in the backyard hitting softballs off a tee into a net. He says he stayed home from school this morning because he had a hard time falling asleep the night before and woke up with a fever. Jessica gave him the benefit of the doubt and let him stay home.

Nearly every day since the shooting, Jessica has to convince Austin or Illia帽a to go to school, and they miss school at least once a week. Sometimes Jessica gets a call to pick them up before the school day is done because Illia帽a has a panic attack or Austin鈥檚 anxiety gets too intense.

Austin admits that he wasn鈥檛 really sick this morning: 鈥淚 had a bad thought last night that I was going to be in a mental hospital,鈥� he says, picking up a softball and setting it on the tee. He spends the next half hour methodically hitting balls, working on his swing.

鈥淥ne more for the fans,鈥� he says, pretending he鈥檚 in a real game. He swings but barely chips the ball, which dribbles off the tee.

鈥淭he fans deserve better,鈥� he says, grabbing the ball. He swings again, this time hitting the ball squarely. It soars in the air before hitting a tree in the backyard.

鈥淵eah!鈥� Austin yells, dropping the bat and running inside the house.

Illia帽a emerges to take her own batting practice. Jessica wanders out to the backyard to watch as her daughter gathers the neon-colored softballs, puts them in a bucket and places one on top of the tee. One by one, she hits the balls into the net.

A few hours earlier, Jessica had rushed to Sacred Heart with hydroxyzine, used to treat anxiety, after the school called to tell her Illia帽a was biting her fingertips and hyperventilating. Jessica decided to bring her daughter home. After the shooting, a doctor diagnosed Illia帽a with post-traumatic stress disorder, major depressive disorder and Graves鈥� disease, an autoimmune disorder.

Jessica watches as Illia帽a practices, wondering why her daughter continues having panic attacks and whether they鈥檙e going to increase as May 24 approaches.

鈥淚 don鈥檛 know if it鈥檚 the anniversary coming,鈥� Jessica says.

She鈥檚 noticed that on the 24th of any month, Illia帽a and Austin get more anxious and Illia帽a鈥檚 panic attacks are more frequent. And just a mention of Illia帽a鈥檚 best friend can trigger a panic attack.

Before the shooting, Illia帽a was targeted for constant bullying by her classmates. Her friend was always there to confront the bullies. Now she鈥檚 gone, and Illia帽a is dealing with a new set of bullies at her new school.

鈥淣ana gets teased a lot about her height and weight,鈥� Jessica says later as she fries corn tortillas in oil on the stove while Amelia帽a does homework at the kitchen table. 鈥淚 have to keep reassuring her there鈥檚 nothing wrong with her, that it鈥檚 OK to be different.

鈥淚t hurts me to see her crying because she doesn鈥檛 feel like she鈥檚 good enough to be someone鈥檚 friend,鈥� Jessica adds. 鈥淎nd it鈥檚 just me to reassure them.鈥�

March 22

Most days are unpredictable in the Trevi帽o house. Jessica and David try to maintain a routine for their children, but anxiety and panic attacks force them to improvise.

At about 11:30 a.m. on a Wednesday, Jessica packs sandwiches in a red lunch bag with Amelia帽a鈥檚 name on it, then drops the bag off at school and returns home to help her husband get dressed and in his wheelchair.

Half an hour later, a staffer at Sacred Heart leaves Jessica a voicemail, asking if she wants to bring Illia帽a鈥檚 medication or pick her up 鈥� she鈥檚 having another panic attack. Jessica rushes to the school.

鈥淭his is always the worst part,鈥� Jessica says on the way to the school. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 know what I鈥檓 walking into, like does she just not feel well, or is she having a panic attack?鈥�

Jessica goes into the school and emerges a few minutes later holding the 12-year-old鈥檚 hand. They get into the car and Illia帽a says her stomach and lower back were hurting.

鈥淪omething was going through my head,鈥� she tells Jessica.

鈥淲hat did your counselor say you do when that happens?鈥� Jessica says. 鈥淭o think of something else and breathe.鈥�

鈥淏ut I couldn鈥檛,鈥� Illia帽a says.

鈥淲hat did you dream about last night?鈥� Jessica asks Illia帽a.

鈥淎bout being at Robb and everyone was there and the kids screaming and yelling.鈥�

When they arrive home, David is in front of the house, smoking a cigarette.

鈥淎re you all right?鈥� he asks Illia帽a.

鈥淢y back was hurting,鈥� she tells him.

Inside the house, Jessica gives Illia帽a a pill, which she swallows with a drink of water.

* * *

An hour after Illia帽a gets home, Jessica receives another message from Sacred Heart, asking her to bring a set of clean clothes for Austin, who had an accident at school. She grabs a pair of red shorts, a T-shirt and Huggies wet wipes.

鈥淚t鈥檚 one of those days, David,鈥� she says.

鈥淭ell me about it,鈥� he says.

On the drive, Jessica says she鈥檚 going to take Austin home.

鈥淎s a parent, you鈥檙e never ready for stuff like this. We tackle it because we鈥檙e moms but deep down it tears you up inside,鈥� she says.

She says she and David have tried to understand what their 9-year-old is going through. They have repeatedly asked him what鈥檚 wrong.

鈥淲hen it first happened, Austin told me, 鈥楾hat guy got me all screwed up in the head,鈥欌�� Jessica says, referring to the shooter.

鈥� 鈥榊ou can鈥檛 let him win,鈥� I told him,鈥� Jessica says.

She goes into the school again and comes back out with Austin. On the way home, they stop at a convenience store, where she buys him some chicken tenders and a bottle of Coke. When they arrive home, Austin showers and emerges in clean clothes.

He grabs his Coke and goes into the backyard, where he lines up the bottle cap on the edge of a handrail and opens the bottle with a quick smack of his hand. The Coke fizzes out and he immediately begins to drink it before it spills.

He says last night he heard loud bangs outside his home and the noise kept him up and made him anxious. In class, he kept thinking about what those sounds could be. He says he decided not to tell his teacher what was going through his mind that caused him to have an accident.

Chubs, Austin鈥檚 brown and white bulldog, starts reaching for Austin鈥檚 food. The boy wraps his arms around the dog.

鈥淗e protects me from dangerous people,鈥� Austin says.

* * *

After Jessica picks up Amelia帽a and David James from school, she tells the girls to get ready because it鈥檚 picture day for the softball team.

Illia帽a sits in her bedroom and begins to cry. Jessica goes into her room, strokes her hair and asks her what鈥檚 wrong. She tells her mom she doesn鈥檛 want to take pictures.

Jessica asks her why.

鈥淭hey鈥檙e going to make fun of me,鈥� Illia帽a says.

Austin goes inside the bedroom and asks his sister what鈥檚 wrong. Illia帽a, irritated, yells: 鈥淕et out of my room, close the door.鈥�

Jessica leaves Illia帽a鈥檚 room and begins to curl Amelia帽a鈥檚 hair as the teenager sits on a chair in a living room, watching a video on her cellphone.

鈥淚t just hurts to see her like that,鈥� Jessica says, passing a curling iron through Amelia帽a鈥檚 hair. 鈥淪he is just having a shitty day all around.鈥�

When Illia帽a finally emerges from her room and sees her sister ready for pictures, she decides to go after all.

March 24

Like most Fridays, David is grilling dinner for the family. The house is full of people: Their neighbors are here along with two of David鈥檚 cousins, Oscar Trevi帽o and Ida Velasquez, who brings her 8-year-old daughter to play with the Trevi帽o children.

The smell of boiling beans fills the kitchen. Outside, smoke pours from the grill and Mexican corridos play on a Bluetooth speaker as Austin and David James play basketball in the street, teaching Velasquez鈥檚 daughter how to shoot.

Illia帽a stays in her room and begins to cry. Jessica grabs a bottle of pills and rushes into her daughter鈥檚 bedroom along with Velasquez.

鈥淵ou鈥檙e OK,鈥� they tell her.

鈥淣o, I鈥檓 not,鈥� Illia帽a snaps back.

Jessica calls for Amelia帽a, who tries to get her younger sister to start a breathing exercise.

鈥淚 can鈥檛,鈥� Illia帽a says.

Velasquez tries to rub Illia帽a鈥檚 back to console her, but Illia帽a doesn鈥檛 want to be touched.

鈥淟et go! Let go! Let go!鈥� Illia帽a screams. 鈥淪top touching me.鈥�

Jessica tries to convince Illia帽a again to do a breathing exercise. Illia帽a buries her face into a plush bear and muffles, 鈥淚鈥檓 sorry.鈥�

Illia帽a then starts to bite her fingertips. Amelia帽a rushes out of the room to get Steve, her favorite kitten from the litter that the family cat gave birth to recently. Amelia帽a passes the kitten to Illia帽a and after about 15 minutes, Illia帽a calms down.

Everyone leaves the room. Illia帽a stays in bed, caressing Steve.

In the kitchen, Velasquez wants to cry, too. It hurts her to see her niece struggling. Jessica tells her to hold it together. If Illia帽a hears or sees her crying, she may break down again.

鈥淵ou have to be mentally strong to go through this, because look what time it is,鈥� Jessica tells Velasquez. 鈥淚t鈥檚 not like you can take the kids anywhere right now for help.鈥�

After dinner, Illia帽a finally emerges from the house, walks to her aunt and hugs her without saying a word.

鈥淵ou OK, mija?鈥� Velasquez asks her. Illia帽a nods her head.

It鈥檚 past midnight before the house is finally quiet again. Jessica walks to the back porch and lights up a Marlboro, staring off into the night. She leans against the porch railing, arms crossed.

鈥淚 come out here to think: 鈥榃hat can I do better the next day?鈥欌�� she says, then stubs out the cigarette and flicks the butt into the yard.

March 25

The next day is Saturday, and like most weekends, the Trevi帽os try to spend time away from the house as a family.

They pile into the pickup and drive to Del Rio, pulling up to a house where a group of men dressed in boots, denim jeans and black leather vests with the Bad Company motorcycle club logo are waiting with their Harley-Davidson motorcycles.

The bikers greet the Trevi帽o children warmly.

The motorcycle group is made up of military veterans who routinely participate in public events to help raise awareness about mental health issues. Last summer, shortly after the shooting, the club came to Uvalde to take part in a community event for children affected by the shooting and met the Trevi帽o children.

As part of the event, Austin also got to smash a pie in club member Albert Trevi帽o鈥檚 face. Since then, Albert 鈥� who served four years in the Army, including a tour in Afghanistan, and was diagnosed with PTSD in 2016 鈥� has stayed in touch with Austin and his family. Albert, 33, said he and Austin got along right away because of the boy鈥檚 charismatic personality.

He said he appreciates the Trevi帽os doing everything they can to provide a support system for their children, even with their limited resources. He said his brother, who did two tours in Afghanistan with the Army, took his own life after struggling with PTSD, so Albert wants to give the Trevi帽o children another adult to turn to for help.

鈥淕rowing up in a Latino family, mental health is kind of like a joke,鈥� he said. 鈥淭hey say stuff like, 鈥楴o, pobrecito, esta menso鈥欌�� 鈥� No, poor him, he鈥檚 just dumb.

The bikers help Illia帽a, David James and Austin put on helmets. The children sit behind the men, who rev the Harleys鈥� engines before they take off on rides around the city.

Alexander 鈥淭ripp鈥� Arneson, a club member, said that veterans diagnosed with PTSD use motorcycle riding as a form of therapy.

鈥淩iding the bike, you feel the cold wind hit your arms and just feel the speed of the bike,鈥� he says. The club, he adds, wants to help the children create happy memories and have something positive to think about when they鈥檙e feeling anxious.

鈥淭hey shouldn鈥檛 go through with what they experienced,鈥� he says. 鈥淪o whenever they鈥檙e feeling bad, this helps them remind them that there are people who care for them.鈥�

When the rides are done, the family decides to go to Blue Hole Park, a popular local swimming spot.

The children excitedly run to a bridge over a broad stretch of San Felipe Creek and jump into the water.

David waits in the truck, out of the sun, while Jessica sits in a lawn chair nearby, wearing a hat and sunglasses, and watches her kids frolicking in the water. She wonders out loud: 鈥淒o you think the world still thinks of these kids?鈥�

鈥淣ot really,鈥� Illia帽a chimes in as she emerges from the water, dripping wet in her basketball shorts.

鈥淪o you think they鈥檙e just like, 鈥榃hatever鈥� now?鈥� Jessica asks.

鈥淵eah, there are other things that are happening in the world,鈥� Illia帽a responds before diving into the creek again. A teenage boy asks Amelia帽a for her number. Austin chases him off with a Nerf water gun. 鈥淕et away from my sister,鈥� he says.

Jessica smiles.

鈥淎t least they get to be kids here and be worry-free,鈥� she says. For a little while, everyone is happy, and the day that a teenager walked into a school with a rifle and changed their lives feels far away. That鈥檚 what Jessica and David want for their children 鈥� to be able to forget and just be normal kids again.

鈥淚 don鈥檛 want them remembered as Robb kids,鈥� Jessica says. 鈥淚 want them remembered as good kids.鈥�

May 20

It鈥檚 four days before the one-year mark of the Robb Elementary shooting. The Trevi帽os have decided they don鈥檛 want to be in Uvalde for it. So they鈥檝e rented an Airbnb in Del Rio for a week.

The children are excited to go. 鈥淚t鈥檚 a lot of fun over there,鈥� David James says.

鈥淚 think the kids need a break from everything going on here,鈥� Jessica says. 鈥淚t鈥檚 just not good for them, it鈥檚 not good for their mental health.

鈥淢aybe next year will be different.鈥�

This article originally appeared in , a member-supported, nonpartisan newsroom informing and engaging Texans on state politics and policy. Learn more at texastribune.org.

The Texas Education Agency a plethora of proposals that would, among other changes, require public schools to install silent panic alarms and automatic locks on exterior doors.

Other proposals include inspecting doors on a weekly basis to make sure they lock and can be opened from the outside only with a key. Two-way emergency radios would also have to be tested regularly. Schools would need to add some sort of vestibules so visitors can wait before being let in, and all ground-level windows would have to be made with bulletproof glass.

These proposed requirements come about five months after a gunman killed 21 people, including 19 children, at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde. The gunman entered a door that had been closed by a teacher, but the automatic lock failed.

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If approved, schools would have to start putting in place these safety measures starting in 2023. Before the end of this year, the education department will collect on the proposed rules.

The state has $400 million for increased safety measures that will be disbursed to districts. In the coming weeks, the education department will make a grant application available to districts. Districts will receive those grants based on enrollment, while smaller, rural schools will receive the minimum $200,000.

Proposing these safety measures is the latest action the state has taken to secure schools in the wake of the Uvalde shooting. In June, the education department that it would check all the locks on exterior doors prior to the start of the 2022-2023 school year and review every district鈥檚 school safety plans.

Matthew Gutierrez, superintendent of the Seguin Independent School District, said the safety measures that the state would require are needed, but he鈥檚 not sure smaller school districts like his would be able to meet a 2023 implementation date.

The 7,000-student district is located about 36 miles east from San Antonio.

Gutierrez also said he鈥檚 not sure if the funding available would be enough for the state鈥檚 1,026 school districts that vary dramatically in size.

鈥淲e had the opportunity to look at costs and just how significant it would be when you think of [adding] shatterproof glass,鈥� he said.

Upgrading aging schools will prove to be another monetary issue as they don鈥檛 have the infrastructure to be easily upgraded, Gutierrez said. As part of the midterm elections, the Seguin school district is asking its voters to approve a $15 million package that will go to upgrading security features on several campuses, but that鈥檚 nowhere near enough to cover what the district needs.

Brian Woods, superintendent of the Northside Independent School District, echoed Gutierrez and said his main concern is cost.

“What appears to be perhaps affordable given the size of the grant today may not be in six months because so many districts will be out spending money,” Woods said.

His school district includes the northwestern neighborhoods in San Antonio and serves about 102,000 students.

As Texas moves forward with different safety measures, there is no indication that beefing up security in schools has prevented violence. Rather, they can can be detrimental to children, especially Black and Hispanic children. Black students are overrepresented in all types of disciplinary referrals and than their white peers.

Advocates and Uvalde parents have criticized the state鈥檚 response in the months after the shooting, demanding state lawmakers raise the minimum age to purchase a semi-automatic rifle in the state from 18 to 21 years old.

They have to call a special session to make this happen. , who has signed legislation to expand gun rights, hasn鈥檛 budged.

This article originally appeared in , a member-supported, nonpartisan newsroom informing and engaging Texans on state politics and policy. Learn more at texastribune.org.

A Texas House committee released a 77-page Sunday on the Uvalde school shooting, concluding that allowed an 18-year-old gunman to enter Robb Elementary School May 24 and kill 19 children and two teachers. The report, described as the most exhaustive account of the tragedy, cited a disorganized, chaotic law enforcement response crippled by an across-the-board leadership failure, multiple missed warning signs about the shooter’s propensity for deadly violence and a lax atmosphere toward security at the school that had developed over time.

Shortly after Texas news outlets published raw footage of the recent mass school shooting in Uvalde 鈥� and of police officers鈥� gut-wrenching delay in taking out the gunman 鈥� shady corners of the internet became a haven for new conspiracy theories. 

On 4Chan, the fringe chat board that鈥檚 notorious for hosting extremist content, users insisted the 82 minutes of school surveillance camera footage of the May 24 shooting, which resulted in the deaths of 19 children and two teachers, was staged. Rather than depicting one of the deadliest mass school shootings in U.S. history, forum users claimed the heavily armed officers seen milling about were either 鈥渃risis actors鈥� or simply participants in a harmless training exercise.

鈥淚 didn鈥檛 see anyone get shot,鈥� one user commented.

鈥淪aw a lot of police standing around during a live shooter training exercise though,” another said.

The footage jointly released by the Austin American-Statesman newspaper and KVUE TV briefly features the 18-year-old suspect as he walks unimpeded into the school and the piercing sounds of gunfire, but is mostly focused on police standing back in the brightly painted hallway. The news outlets chose to edit out the children鈥檚 screams and nobody is shown getting shot on frame, details that quickly became fodder for conspiracy theorists, including one who dubbed it propaganda promoting 鈥淒EMOCRAP GUNGRABBING.鈥�

Ever since news outlets released the footage this week inside Robb Elementary School, the small community west of San Antonio has endured a new round of trauma and turbulence. Anger once again focused on the failed police response, as the footage showed how officers with rifles and protective shields idled for more than an hour before confronting the killer, one casually sanitizing his hands from a wall dispenser.

 Yet for many, the publication itself became the focus of fury. 

While some experts saw the images as critical to holding police accountable, some Texas officials criticized the news outlets for their decision. Uvalde residents, particularly the victims鈥� families, said releasing the video publicly, before they were scheduled to see it privately first, was re-traumatizing. 

鈥淲ho in the hell do these people think they are?鈥� Angel Garza, whose daughter Amerie was killed, said on CNN. 鈥淵ou want to go ahead and air their final moments to the entire world. What makes you think that鈥檚 OK? The least you can do is have some freaking decency for us.鈥� 

Meanwhile, researchers who study school shootings and online extremism warned the footage would likely have intense preoccupation in fringe online communities, including those that advocate real-world violence. The video鈥檚 release has opened a debate about whether it serves any utility for the general public and has left some experts concerned that the footage could become useful for someone planning the next fatal attack. 

The Uvalde shooting 鈥渨ill have tremendous fascination for a certain segment of the population,鈥� said psychologist Peter Langman, who has spent decades . Time and again, his research has shown, perpetrators study and emulate the behaviors and tactics of previous gunmen. 

In , the Department of Homeland Security warned that online forums dedicated to the glorification of domestic extremist violence have been flooded with posts urging copycat attacks in the wake of Uvalde. Six of the nine deadliest mass shootings in the U.S. since 2018 , and federal law enforcement officials have warned that fringe online forums are being leveraged to radicalize young, violent extremists. Some have seized on the attack 鈥渢o spread disinformation and incite grievances, including claims it was a government-staged event meant to advance gun control measures,鈥� the threat bulletin warned. 

Violent videos are often presented online as memes or jokes and aren鈥檛 inherently harmful, said Kurt Braddock, an assistant professor of public communication at American University and a faculty fellow with the Polarization and Extremism Research and Innovation Lab. But such jokes, he said, can serve to radicalize. 

鈥淜ids and young people, they have a technological capacity that people who are older never had,鈥� he told 社区黑料. 鈥淭he problem is that they don鈥檛 have the media literacy skills to distinguish what鈥檚 a joke and what鈥檚 a call to action.鈥�

A compulsive interest with mass shootings in fringe online communities traces back to the 1999 Columbine High School attack in suburban Denver, which has been repeatedly cited by the shooters in subsequent attacks. In online communities, so-called 鈥淐olumbiners鈥� mull over every detail of the infamous shooting, sharing a vast photo and video archive of the high school gunmen. That includes haunting surveillance video footage from inside the school cafeteria. 

鈥淭here鈥檚 a whole phenomenon of Columbiners, people who are obsessed with every aspect of Columbine and track down every photo they can find of the perpetrators and post them on websites,鈥� said Langman. Because so many people were killed in Uvalde, he said a similar warped pursuit could emerge with the Texas massacre. Intellectual curiosity has driven some people to become obsessed with Columbine and subsequent attacks, Langman said, and others have developed romantic infatuations with the perpetrators. Meanwhile, he said a segment of the community is motivated by the desire for violence. 

 鈥淢ost of the people fascinated with these attacks are not aspiring killers but some of them are likely to be eventual killers and that鈥檚 where the potential danger is.鈥� 

鈥楾oo graphic鈥�

Surveillance video footage depicting the mayhem inside a school during a shooting is rarely released publicly. Beyond footage of the Columbine cafeteria, a limited selection of videos were made public after the 2018 mass school shooting in Parkland, Florida. But none were as extensive as the footage released in Uvalde, experts said. 

The video was published Tuesday by the Texas news outlets nearly a week before state Rep. Dustin Burrows, a Republican leading a legislative investigation into the shooting, had planned to show the video to victims鈥� families in a private screening before releasing it publicly alongside the probe鈥檚 preliminary findings. In a series of tweets on Tuesday, Burrows said he is 鈥済lad that a small portion is now available for the public,鈥� which deserves to see police officers鈥� response to the shooting, but expressed disappointment that victims鈥� families were unable to see it first. Meanwhile, efforts to withhold certain images and audio of the violence, he said, 鈥渨ere not achieved.鈥�

Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin , calling the media outlets鈥� decision to publish the video 鈥渙ne of the most chicken things I鈥檝e ever seen.鈥� 

In , the Austin newspaper explained that its decision came after 鈥渓ong and thoughtful discussions,鈥� and was done to provide clarity about what happened inside the school after weeks of confusion and repeated misinformation. The newspaper blurred the face of a student who appears momentarily at the beginning of the video and omitted the sounds of children screaming as the gunman entered their fourth grade classroom, a detail they deemed 鈥渢oo graphic.鈥� Editors ultimately chose, however, to show the face of the gunman as he entered the school undeterred.

鈥淥ur news organization guidelines state that we should not glorify these individuals and give them the notoriety that they seek,鈥� the paper said in the op-ed. 鈥淲e chose, in this instance, to show his face to chisel away at any conspiracy that we are hiding something.鈥� 

Such conspiracy theories had already become widespread in online forums, including 4Chan. In one online forum dedicated to mass shootings, users compared the Uvalde suspect to the perpetrator who carried out the 2012 attack on Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut, commenting on their physical and strategic similarities. The forum, whose previous users have included multiple mass shooters, including the Newtown gunman, was flooded with screenshots of the Uvalde suspect鈥檚 social media posts. 

Since the Columbine shooting, standard law enforcement procedures have called on officers to respond to threats immediately even at risk of their own lives, said campus security consultant Kenneth Trump, president of the Cleveland-based National School Safety and Security services. The hallway video from Uvalde, he said, is critical to hold police accountable for their hour-long delay before confronting the gunman. There鈥檇 be reason to withhold footage that depicts the gunman killing children, he wrote in an email, but not of officers in the hallway. That footage, he said, made clear that police lacked a coordinated response during the mayhem. 

鈥淭hat is fair game for public scrutiny especially given the conflicting accounts and finger pointing by public officials,鈥� Trump said. 鈥淭here are questions about accountability and you cannot have accountability without transparency.鈥�

Sen. Chris Murphy, a Democrat from Connecticut and a leading proponent of tighter gun control measures, also sees utility in the video. In an appearance Wednesday on MSNBC, Murphy said it clearly dispels a common right-wing talking point that 鈥渢he only way to stop a bad guy with a gun is good guys with a gun.鈥� 

鈥淚f one teenager with a high-powered weapon is so scary as to prevent all of those highly trained adults from going in and saving lives, maybe we should try to stop those teenagers from having those kinds of guns in the first place,鈥� Murphy said. 鈥淏ecause clearly, we never have enough good guys with guns. We can never have enough high-powered weapons in the hands of law enforcement to stop an assailant if we couldn’t get that job done given what we have seen on the tapes in Uvalde.鈥�

Yet for all its persuasive power, Murphy noted the traumatizing nature of the footage, saying 鈥淚 don’t recommend that people watch it.鈥�

A right to know? 

For years to come, the hallway video will serve as a mass-shooting training tool for police, said Jaclyn Schildkraut, an associate criminal justice professor at the State University of New York at Oswego. And given the intense scrutiny of the officers鈥� response, she said 鈥渢he only way to set the record straight is to release this video.鈥�

鈥淭he footage is so damning,鈥� she said. 鈥淵ou had officers sitting there on their phones, you had an officer who was not only on his phone but then went and sanitized his hands. It鈥檚 incredibly problematic.鈥�

Several officers can be seen checking their phones during the long standoff in the hallway, although a clarified that one who had come under particular attack was Uvalde school police Officer Ruben Ruiz, whose wife, Eva Mireles, had called her husband to tell him she had been shot inside the classroom. Mireles and her co-teacher, Irma Garcia, were both killed protecting their students.

Schildkraut said the video has limited value in the public domain, and could actually be harmful for the families of the victims who will be forced to relive the tragedy for the rest of their lives. They should have been given a say about the video鈥檚 public release, she argued, while noting the footage could fall into the wrong hands.聽

鈥淭here鈥檚 going to be people who come up with conspiracy theories and then go harass the families because that鈥檚 what they did in Sandy Hook and they鈥檝e done elsewhere,鈥� she said. 鈥淭his could end up on the dark web and people could idolize this individual even more. What public value does it add?鈥�

After the Sandy Hook shooting, conspiracy theorists flooded the internet with claims the tragedy was a 鈥渇alse flag.鈥� Last year, conspiracy theorist and InfoWars host Alex Jones in a defamation lawsuit by victims鈥� families for his repeated claims that the shooting was a hoax. 

A similar debate over the public鈥檚 right to know key details also followed the Columbine shooting, Langman said. Extensive footage has become publicly available, including the cafeteria surveillance video and other homemade videos created by the perpetrators. But some were never publicized, most notably the 鈥渂asement tapes,鈥� which reportedly included some four hours of film that offer a window into the motives and plans of the perpetrators just weeks before they carried out the attack. The tapes were due to concerns they could inspire more violence. 

American University鈥檚 Braddock said the Uvalde hallway video presents a catch-22. Transparency around the police response is important, he said, but it also offers a wealth of material to online circles of people with morbid curiosities or worse

鈥淚t鈥檚 so easy to turn the images from that video into memes that can circulate within these circles online, and those can serve to build other little communities of would-be mass shooters,鈥� he said.

Uvalde school district Police Chief Pete Arredondo was placed on administrative leave Wednesday, schools Superintendent Hal Harrell announced in a . The move came after Steven McCraw, the director of the state Department of Public Safety, told state lawmakers Tuesday that Arredondo’s decision to wait more than an hour to confront the gunman during a May 24 mass shooting at Robb Elementary School “put the lives of officers ahead of the lives of children.鈥� Two teachers and 19 students died in the attack, which is now under investigation by multiple agencies. Harrell said it was the district’s intention to wait until those investigations were complete before making any personnel decisions. But because of “the lack of clarity that remains and the unknown timing of when I will receive the results of the investigations,” the schools chief said he decided to place Arredondo on leave effective Wednesday. A lieutenant in the six-member department will take over. The Texas Tribune reported that a district spokeswoman if the leave was paid or unpaid.

Police and school security experts are questioning why the Uvalde, Texas, school police chief remains on the job nearly a month after a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers at the local elementary school.

While Chief Pete Arrendondo鈥檚 fiercest critics have following reports that officers under his command waited more than an hour before confronting the shooter, school safety and police accountability experts criticized education leaders for failing to remove him as head of the six-member school police force, even temporarily. 

Placing cops on 鈥減aid administrative leave or in a no-contact assignment鈥� after an officer-involved shooting is , according to the world鈥檚 largest professional trade group for police chiefs. Those standards, experts told 社区黑料, are critical to the public鈥檚 confidence in the ensuing investigations, the school community鈥檚 safety and even the chief鈥檚 well-being. 

鈥淚t鈥檚 just baffling that you would have this conversation days after the incident, much less weeks or a month out,鈥� said school safety consultant Kenneth Trump, president of National School Safety and Security Services. Trump said the standards for officer-involved shootings should apply to Arredondo, a nearly 30-year law enforcement veteran whose response to the Robb Elementary School mass shooting is the subject of investigations by the local district attorney鈥檚 office, state law enforcement and elected officials and the U.S. Department of Justice that will likely take months. 

Investigators will scrutinize why officers waited outside a classroom door for more than an hour despite from the children inside begging for police to save them and that there were others trapped with the gunman who were injured but still alive. Eventually, Border Patrol agents and other law enforcement stormed in and killed the shooter. Arredondo, who as the incident commander on the scene, reportedly made the call not to go in immediately.

Steven McCraw, the director of the state Department of Public Safety, on Tuesdayresponse an 鈥渁bject failure,鈥� and said the classroom door was apparently unlocked despite the cops鈥� decision to wait for a key before entering the room to confront the gunman. Just minutes after the first shots were fired, he said, the police had enough firepower and protection to act.

鈥淭he only thing stopping a hallway of dedicated officers from entering Room 111 and 112 was the on-scene commander,鈥� McCraw told Texas state lawmakers. Instead, Arredondo 鈥渄ecided to put the lives of officers ahead of the lives of children.鈥�

Before those statements, Trump said that Arredondo should be taken out of his leadership role with the school district.

鈥淚f there indeed is something found where he made some fatal errors in his decision making, then you don鈥檛 want that person still there making decisions on that or other situations,鈥� Trump said. Arredondo witnessed one of the deadliest mass school shootings in U.S. history, a traumatic event that Trump said could cloud the chief鈥檚 decisions. 鈥淲hy would you put somebody under that duress 鈥� whether they鈥檙e consciously aware of it now or at a later point in time 鈥� in a position where they could encounter another stressful or life-threatening situation?鈥�

Arredondo鈥檚 position at the police department’s helm remains uncertain as he avoids public appearances and Uvalde district officials . But evidence suggests he鈥檚 taken on additional responsibilities since the May 24 shooting, with his attorney that the chief has picked up extra shifts to cover for grieving officers. The Texas Rangers had asked Arredondo to participate in an interview for their investigation into the immediate police response, attorney George Hyde told the news outlet, but he was too busy filling in for his officers.

Arredondo also made time to go to City Hall and as a newly elected Uvalde city councilmember a week after the mass shooting. The New York Times reported that the Uvalde City Council voted Tuesday not to offer Arredondo a leave of absence. The chief has not attended meetings since his swearing-in, its story said, and could be forced to give up his seat after missing three meetings.

The Uvalde school board at its first meeting since the armed assault, whether to reassign or fire Arredondo, but after chose not to take immediate action. Board members and a district spokesperson didn鈥檛 respond to requests for comment. 

The law firm representing Arredondo said he declined to comment for this article, but the 50-year-old police chief defended the police response in his extensive June 9 interview with The Texas Tribune. Arrendondo pushed back against statements that he was the incident commander, saying he did not consider himself to be in charge of the scene and did not give orders to other responding officers, including holding off cops who were impatient to breach the door.

鈥淣ot a single responding officer ever hesitated, even for a moment, to put themselves at risk to save the children,” Arredondo told the nonprofit news outlet, though his comments appear to obtained by The New York Times and later the Tribune itself. 鈥淲e responded to the information that we had and had to adjust to whatever we faced. Our objective was to save as many lives as we could.鈥� 

McCraw reiterated Tuesday that Arredondo had assumed the role of on-site commander by issuing orders and directing action.

鈥楬e really failed鈥� 

Since the horrific shooting, Trump and other school security experts have been highly critical of officers鈥� decision to wait in the hallway. For decades, law enforcement has been trained to confront the gunman 鈥� even at the cost of their own lives. 

Such standards grew out of the 1999 mass school shooting at Columbine High School in suburban Denver, with a realization that every second counts during a mass shooting, most of which are carried out in a matter of minutes. A more aggressive response at Uvalde, experts argue, could have saved lives, perhaps including one teacher in an ambulance and three children who passed away at nearby hospitals.

Public information about Arredondo鈥檚 actions that day 鈥� and his own admissions that he ran into the school without his police radio or quick access to the key he said was necessary 鈥� raise significant questions about his ability to perform his job, said Samuel Walker, a national expert on police misconduct and professor emeritus of criminal justice at the University of Nebraska at Omaha. Those questions, he said, necessitate action as investigators examine his conduct. 

鈥淚t appears that his actions were not appropriate and it鈥檚 entirely appropriate that he be on leave,鈥� Walker said. 鈥淯nless some new evidence comes to light, it looks like he really failed in his responsibility and I think that disqualifies him from working any job in that school district.鈥� 

Sheldon Greenberg, an education professor at Johns Hopkins University and a former police officer, said that disciplinary procedures for cops vary greatly across the country and officers often benefit from policies and labor contracts that protect them from facing repercussions for failures on the job. 

Several factors complicate this particular situation, Greenberg said. For one, as chief, Arredondo would typically make disciplinary decisions for officers in his department. In the case of the chief, that responsibility would fall to the district superintendent and the school board, who may have little to no experience in police disciplinary matters, Greenberg said. Additionally, he said it鈥檚 notably difficult to hold an officer accountable for failures to perform job duties. 

鈥淭here鈥檚 a difference between a police officer who commits an act,鈥� like the Minneapolis police officer who murdered George Floyd 鈥渨here the officer had his knee on his neck and was forcing compression on his neck for nine minutes,鈥� Greenberg said. With Arredondo, 鈥渨hat he did you might categorize as omission, which is very different.鈥� 

Officers at the 4,100-student Uvalde school district, including Arredondo, had been trained as recently as last year on how to respond to an active shooting, and materials by the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement urge cops to 鈥淒isplay uncommon acts of courage to save the innocent.鈥� 

鈥淎s first responders we must recognize that innocent life must be defended,鈥� according to the state training materials. 鈥淎 first responder unwilling to place the lives of the innocent above their own safety should consider another career field.鈥� 

Despite the hardline language in the training materials, Greenberg said an officer isn鈥檛 helpful during an emergency if they get killed. 

鈥淵ou can鈥檛 do much if you鈥檙e dead or disabled,鈥� he said. 鈥淵ou still go in with reasonable caution, just don鈥檛 go barging into a room unless you鈥檙e sure you have a genuine opportunity to stop the gunman.鈥� 

Trump, the school safety consultant, said that placing Arredondo or any officer on administrative leave shouldn’t necessarily be framed as a disciplinary measure. While Arredondo鈥檚 continued role in the department could raise concerns about obstruction in the active investigations and about his capacity to keep the community safe, he said that any officer who responded to the elementary school should have a chance to go on leave to recover from the traumatic event. 

In many police departments, he said the move is routine procedure, yet it鈥檚 unclear what policies are in place for the school district鈥檚 six-person police force. A notes that the police chief  鈥渟hall be accountable to the superintendent,鈥� but a review of the rules did not yield any insight on leave of absences. Arredondo and any other officers who are placed on leave should continue to receive a paycheck, Trump said. 

鈥淭hey shouldn鈥檛 have to worry about income for their family, but they should have that paid leave for them to debrief, to decompress, to process, to not be exposed to continual trauma,鈥� Trump said. While any police-involved shooting can cause distress for the officers involved, the Uvalde shooting resulted in the deaths of 19 children. 鈥淭hey鈥檝e been exposed to major trauma and stress of the worst kind.鈥� 

Trump was less sympathetic to Arredondo鈥檚 assertion that he鈥檚 been too busy to participate in interviews with investigators. Making himself available for questioning, he said, should be the chief鈥檚 number one priority. In fact, it鈥檚 another reason to put Arredondo on leave: To ensure he has the time and flexibility to cooperate. Meanwhile, officers from outside police departments across the state . 

鈥淚 can鈥檛 think of anything that anybody should or could be doing that would make them too busy to participate in an investigation into a major school shooting like this,鈥� Trump said. 鈥淚t鈥檚 among the biggest and the worst [mass shootings] that we鈥檝e ever had. That answer certainly doesn鈥檛 carry water with most anybody, including the school community.鈥�

鈥楥oward of Broward鈥�

Arredondo is not the first school-based police officer to face scorn for his performance during a deadly crisis. School resource officer Scot Peterson was placed on administrative leave in 2018 for failing to confront the gunman at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. 

Peterson ultimately chose to retire and was subsequently charged with seven criminal counts of child neglect. Prosecutors said he took cover behind a wall while the gunman killed 17 people. Those actions earned him the nickname the 鈥淐oward of Broward鈥� by ardent critics in his Florida county. Even his boss, then-Sheriff Scott Israel, said at the time that Peterson鈥檚 actions made him 鈥渟ick to my stomach.鈥� 

But Peterson the steps taken against him as a 鈥減olitical lynching.鈥� His attorney, Mark Eiglarsh, told 社区黑料 this week that with both his client and the Uvalde school police chief, 鈥淭he court of public opinion is unfortunately so quick to condemn responding officers and the incident commander without knowing all the facts.鈥� 

鈥淯nfortunately, due to the unprecedented and irresponsible decision鈥� by prosecutors to charge Peterson, he said in an email, he fears that other officers, including Arredondo, 鈥渕ay also be stripped of their liberty and face decades in prison solely because a finding is made after the fact that things could have been handled differently.鈥�  

The case against Peterson is in September. 

Despite the numerous investigations into the Uvalde shooting, the accountability that many in this small Texas community are demanding , according to legal experts. Qualified immunity, which protects cops from liability for their mistakes on the job, could challenge civil lawsuits. Meanwhile, charges against police officers 鈥� like the ones against Peterson 鈥� are extremely rare. But Walker, the police misconduct expert, expects the federal investigation to uncover failures in Uvalde that could help districts nationwide respond to similar attacks moving forward. 

鈥淚t looks like he failed, and if you fail and cause the death of a number of children, then it鈥檚 pretty serious,鈥� Walker said. Yet such shortcomings likely extend beyond Arredondo, he said, and it鈥檚 important that the chief doesn鈥檛 become the scapegoat. 鈥淐learly there鈥檚 what we would call systemic failure, and the school board probably failed in some respects鈥� if it lacked sufficient policies to respond to such a lethal event. 

鈥淥ur elected officials have seen American after American drop from a bullet,鈥� said Corin, a survivor of the 2018 mass school shooting in Parkland, then the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School junior class president. As a co-founder of March For Our Lives, her advocacy in 2018 galvanized a countrywide movement that brought hundreds of thousands of demonstrators to the National Mall to demand new firearms laws. 鈥淎nd instead of waking up to protect us, they have been hitting the snooze button. But we鈥檙e here to shake them awake.鈥� 

Yet four years after youth activists chanted 鈥渘ever again,鈥� some might argue that America is still sleepwalking through wave after wave of gun violence. The latest mass shootings in Buffalo, New York, and Uvalde, Texas, are once again wreaking havoc on American communities and student advocates are once again preparing to hit the streets to force an end to the carnage. 

On Saturday, Corin and other advocates with the youth-led March For Our Lives, including David Hogg and X Gonzalez, will return to Washington for a second rally to press for new firearm restrictions and a slew of policy changes they believe could thwart a gun violence rate that鈥檚 . 

Their insistence that children should never again be allowed to die by gunfire in school was belied 鈥� again 鈥� by  the reality of Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, where 19 children and two educators were shot and killed May 24.

鈥淔our years ago we said 鈥榥ever again,鈥� there鈥檚 never going to be another Parkland, and unfortunately that has not reigned true,鈥� Corin told 社区黑料. Since then, Corin has graduated high school and is now a rising senior at Harvard University, where she studies government and education. During those years, mass shootings have continued to grow more common, with the Uvalde assault  becoming the second-deadliest school shooting in U.S. history. 鈥淎 large reason for that is because barely anything has been done on a national level.鈥�

Along with , organizers have planned hundreds of , all in a matter of weeks. Ahead of the event, March For Our Lives advocates are to promote their agenda. 

They hope for a different outcome this time, but acknowledge the obstacles that have blocked change in the past remain as challenging as ever. In , President Joe Biden questioned 鈥渉ow much more carnage are we willing to accept?鈥� before calling on Congress to ban assault weapons 鈥� or to at least raise the age from 18 to 21 for those looking to buy one. He also pushed for a ban on high-capacity magazines, strengthening background checks and adopting a federal 鈥渞ed flag鈥� law that would allow courts to temporarily remove weapons from people deemed an imminent threat to themselves or others. At the same time, he lamented that 鈥渁 majority of Senate Republicans don鈥檛 want any of these proposals even to be debated.鈥� 

After the Parkland shooting, the Trump administration , a device that uses the recoil of a semiautomatic gun to mimic an automatic rifle. Yet even though then-President Donald Trump embraced an effort to raise the age on rifle sales, efforts fell flat. 

Earlier this week, in negotiations with Republicans over gun proposals after the Uvalde shooting while pointing out that compromises would be crucial to progress. Instead of major firearm restrictions, a bipartisan deal could encourage states to adopt red flag laws and new funding for campus security upgrades 鈥� a reaction that for years has followed virtually every mass school shooting. Sen. John Cornyn, a Republican from Texas, 鈥渋t will be embarrassing鈥� if Democrats and Republicans in the Senate fail to reach a legislative response to Uvalde. 

鈥婱eanwhile, a ruling this month from the U.S. Supreme Court a decades-old New York law that puts sharp limits on who can carry guns in public. 

For Corin, having a Democrat in the White House isn鈥檛 necessarily an encouraging sign. Biden has been president for a year and a half, yet 鈥渨e haven鈥檛 seen anything done,鈥� she said. While Biden has sought to pass the issue onto Congress, Corin said her group has called on the president to appoint a gun violence prevention director, to create a task force focused on the issue and to 鈥渄eclare gun violence a national emergency 鈥� but that hasn鈥檛 happened either.鈥� 

鈥淣o one is exempt from doing work on this issue,鈥� Corin said. 鈥淚 know the executive office doesn鈥檛 have all of the power, but ultimately everyone has a role to play.鈥� 

Corin is very aware that the post-Parkland focus on gun violence had a larger impact at the state level, where . In her native Florida, for example, lawmakers passed a red flag law, raised the age to buy rifles from 18 to 21, created a three-day waiting period on gun purchases and authorized certain educators to be armed at school. In New York, lawmakers responded swiftly to the Buffalo shooting and approved a new law on Monday to strengthen gun control measures, including a red flag law that was implemented after Parkland. 

鈥淚 can only hope that the same sadness and fury that the country is feeling now, as we all did back in 2018, will fuel the continuation of these changes on the state level and ultimately 鈥� hopefully 鈥� on a national level,鈥� said Corin, who the former Marjory Stoneman student who pleaded guilty in October to opening fire on the school. 

In its policy platform, March For Our Lives blames American gun violence on a culture of 鈥済un glorification,鈥� political apathy, poverty and 鈥渁rmed supremacy鈥� in which the threat of guns are used to 鈥渞einforce power structures, hierarchies, and status.鈥� And while they recognize a national mental health crisis exists, they oppose 鈥渟capegoating鈥� those with mental illnesses as being a threat to others when they鈥檙e actually more likely than those without such disorders to .

Solutions, according to the group, include a ban on assault rifles and high-capacity magazines and a national firearm buy-back program that could reduce the number of firearms in circulation by some 30 percent. There are an estimated 393 million guns in circulation across the U.S. 鈥� that鈥檚 more guns than people. 

But the group鈥檚 platform extends far beyond firearm policies to prevent violence and encompasses a slew of policies generally associated with Democrats. Those include ending the 鈥渨ar on drugs,鈥� combating the 鈥渟chool-to-prison pipeline,鈥� and reducing the scope of policing. 

For RuQuan Brown, a D.C. native whose stepfather was killed in a 2018 shooting, the conversation, he said, needs to 鈥渇ocus more on love than legislation.鈥� RuQuan, who is Black, said that urban gun violence has long failed to garner the same urgency as mass shootings like the ones that played out in Parkland and Uvalde despite . 

Through his work with March For Our Lives, Brown said he鈥檚 been able to help ensure that the experiences of all gun violence victims are reflected in reform efforts. 

鈥淚鈥檝e been able to work with March to make sure that when we talk about March For Our Lives, that all peoples鈥� lives are included in that,鈥� said Brown, who also attends Harvard. For him, uplifting disenfranchised communities will be the key to gun violence prevention. 鈥淭his country and its ancestors are extremely comfortable with the deaths of Black and brown people, it鈥檚 almost a part of the fabric of this country. America wouldn鈥檛 be what it is without the deaths of Black and brown people, the genocide, the rape and the forced labor.鈥�

He said it鈥檚 critical that lawmakers develop compassion for, and a commitment to help, society鈥檚 most marginalized people. If they were 鈥渃ommitted to furthering the well-being of all people,鈥� he said, 鈥淲e wouldn鈥檛 even be having this conversation about gun violence.鈥� 

With the midterm elections approaching, Corin predicted the recent mass shootings, including at the Uvalde elementary school and a Buffalo supermarket, could once again make gun violence a top issue on the campaign trail. It鈥檚 more important than ever, she said, for candidates to let people know on which side of the issue they stand. 

鈥淚f people aren鈥檛 clear on their stances and if they don鈥檛 act with courage, they鈥檙e going to be voted out,鈥� Corin said. 鈥淎nd you know what, we鈥檙e going to vote in someone that doesn鈥檛 believe that children should be shot in their seats in school.鈥�