After anger-filled public meeting, Uvalde school superintendent acknowledges, ‘Trust has been crippled’

The Uvalde school district’s board, in a meeting called to brief parents on how it would make campuses safer and “prepare for the social and emotional needs” of staff and students, was blistered for almost two hours by angry denunciations of district leadership. Some slammed the district for its handling of now-suspended police chief Pedro “Pete” Arredondo, the incident commander nominally in charge of the disastrous law-enforcement response to the Robb Elementary mass shooting on May 24 that killed 19 children and two teachers.

Some criticized other officers on the scene that day, as well as a former Robb principal who was reinstated three days after her suspension. At the heart of the criticism — some of it sharp and personal — was the belief that the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District had broken the trust of parents, teachers and students. The superintendent, Hal Harrell, conceded as much. “Absolutely,” he said when asked after Monday’s meeting if the district had lost the public’s faith. “We’re all in a state of shock still, and trust has been crippled. It really has, and we’re going to have to build that back.” During the meeting, he listed a series of measures — 33 new police officers, hundreds of security cameras, “campus monitors” with iPads who’ll constantly walk the grounds and check doors, and the availability of a virtual learning option for parents who don’t want their children back in a classroom when school starts Sept. 6.