Robb Elementary principal defends herself after being placed on administrative leave
The principal of Robb Elementary School was put on leave after a mass shooting in which 19 students and two teachers were brutally murdered. On Thursday, she was brought back to work.
A short letter from Uvalde School Superintendent Hal Harrell says that school leader Mandy Gutierrez was able to go back to work on Thursday. Gutierrez argued against the findings of a Texas legislative committee report that was critical of school security. This led to the quick change of mind.
“Thank you for responding to our request for information by submitting your response to the House Investigative Report. As a result of our review, you will be allowed to return to work on this date (July 28, 2022),” Harrell wrote in the letter that was obtained by Fox News Digital.
Her lawyer also told Fox News that she had gone back to work.
“She has been fully reinstated to her position, where she will continue to discharge her duties and continue to serve all the families of the UCISD,” said lawyer Ricardo Cedillo.
In their report from earlier this month, members of a Texas legislative committee said that the elementary school had a “culture of complacency” that made it easy for Salvador Ramos to start shooting inside the school.
But in a letter to the committee on Wednesday, Gutierrez said that wasn’t true.
“It is unfair and inaccurate to conclude I ever [became] complacent on any security issue of Robb Elementary,” she wrote in the letter that was posted by Fox News.
She also argued against the findings that said she was at fault for not repairing a lock in a classroom that she and an assistant knew didn’t work before Ramos went there on May 24.
She said that the lock worked because the night before the shooting, a custodian checked every door. She also said she couldn’t remember the teacher of that class ever saying that the door didn’t lock.
That teacher, Arnulfo Reyes, told CNN that he didn’t complain about the door being locked, but rather that it got stuck numerous times over three years.
Pete Arredondo, the chief of police at Uvalde’s school, is still on leave. He received a lot of flak for how he handled the day of the shooting, when law enforcement didn’t act swiftly to stop the crazy gunman.
