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| Photo Credit: AP. |
UVALDE, Texas (AP) — Uvalde’s school district superintendent announced Monday he plans to resign by the end of the academic year, following months of community outrage over the handling of the United States’ deadliest school shooting in nearly a decade.
“My heart
was broken on May 24th,” Hal Harrell said in a statement.
The Uvalde
school board voted unanimously Monday evening to begin the search for Harrell’s
successor.
Harrell, law
enforcement, the school board, and other school officials have faced heavy
criticism over their actions — and inaction — during the massacre of 19
fourth-graders and two teachers at Robb Elementary School. Officers allowed the
shooter to remain inside a classroom for more than 70 minutes.
Texas
lawmakers issued a damning report this summer that found “systemic failures and
egregiously poor decision making” by both police and school officials.
Harrell’s
resignation statement was posted on his wife’s Facebook page because he said he
doesn’t have an account.
“I have been
blessed to work among amazing educators and staff who believe in education for
more than 30 years, which have all been in our beautiful community. These next
steps for our future are being taken after much reflection, and is completely
my choice,” he wrote.
The Facebook
post, first reported by CNN, was initially made public on Monday but was no
longer accessible a few hours later. The Uvalde school board did not respond to
requests for a copy of Harrell’s statement.
The
superintendent’s announcement comes a week after school district officials
suspended the entire school police force.
Just a day
earlier, the district fired a recently hired school police officer who had been
a Texas state trooper on the scene at Robb Elementary when the shooting took
place. The district hired the ex-trooper, Crimson Elizondo, even though school
officials knew she was one of seven troopers on the scene, all of whom are
under internal investigation for their actions that day. She had quit the Texas
Department of Public Safety.
That these
developments all come just a month into the new school year underscores the
sustained pressure that families of some of the slain children and teachers
have kept on the district.
In July, the
Uvalde school board called a special meeting to hear from parents. At that
meeting, Harrell apologized for previously being “too formal” and not letting
victims’ families say their piece.
For more AP coverage of the Uvalde school shooting:
https://apnews.com/hub/uvalde-school-shooting