The Texas school where the shooting took place will be demolished: "You can never ask a child to return to that school"

- Texas Public Safety Chief Steve McCraw: "The officers had guns, the kids didn't have any."

A man lays flowers at the entrance to Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas (USA), where a young man killed 19 children and two teachers. / EFE

Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, will be demolished after the mass shooting last May, where a gunman killed 19 children and two adults. The objective of this fact is to build a new school for its almost 600 students. As reported by The Guardian.

Don McLaughlin, the town's mayor, told a council meeting in Uvalde on Tuesday: "My understanding, and I had this discussion with the superintendent of the school district, is that the school will be demolished. You can never ask a child who returns or a teacher who never returns to that school.

The mayor's comments come amid growing public anger over the police response to the May 25 shooting and how heavily armed officers waited for 70 minutes after arriving at the school before storming the classroom where the shooter was resisting.

Speaking at a state hearing investigating the incident, Texas public safety chief Steve McCraw called the police response "an abject failure and antithetical to everything" known about how to respond to such crises.

McCraw said local police chief Pedro "Pete" Arredondo, who was the commander on the scene, prevented other officers from apprehending the intruder earlier and potentially prevented the carnage. Arredondo "decided to put the lives of the officers before the lives of the children."

"The officers had guns, the kids didn't have any. The officers had bulletproof vests, but the kids didn't have any. The officers had training, the subject didn't," the Texas public safety chief has said.

Societal impact

The outpouring of anguish over the Uvalde massacre, coupled with outrage over the racially motivated shooting deaths of 10 black people in Buffalo, New York, 10 days earlier, has led to another push for some kind of federal crime control legislation. weapons.

On Tuesday, US senators announced an agreement on a gun violence bill that would toughen background checks for gun buyers.

It would also disburse money to states and communities aimed at improving school safety and mental health initiatives.