Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin reveals fate of massacre site Robb Elementary School

Uvalde Mayor Don McLaughlin on Tuesday announced that the Robb Elementary School, where 21 died in a mass shooting last month, will be demolished. Speaking at the city council meeting, he added that no child or teacher should return to the site of the massacre. 

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McLaughlin said officials planned to raze the building. “My understanding – and I had this discussion with the superintendent – that school will be demolished,” the mayor said, as per multiple news outlets. 

“You can never ask a child to go back, or a teacher to go back in that school ever,” McLaughlin added. He, however, did not provide a timeline for the demolition. 

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District Superintendent Hal Harrell, according to the The Texas Tribune, had earlier this month said that the 550 students of the Robb Elementary will be split between Dalton Elementary School and Flores Elementary School in the next academic year. 

Meanwhile, the Uvalde school district’s police chief was put on leave Wednesday following allegations that he erred in his response to the mass shooting that left 19 students and two teachers dead.

Harrell said that he put schools police Chief Pete Arredondo on administrative leave because the facts of what happened remain unclear. In a statement, Harrell did not address Arredondo’s actions as on-site commander during the attack but said he didn’t know when details of multiple investigations into the law enforcement response to the slayings would be revealed.

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“From the beginning of this horrible event, I shared that the district would wait until the investigation was complete before making personnel decisions,” Harrell said. “Because of the lack of clarity that remains and the unknown timing of when I will receive the results of the investigations, I have made the decision to place Chief Arredondo on administrative leave effective on this date.”