The 10-year-old has recovered from his physical wounds, but the burning smells still remind him of gunshots and the sight of many police officers recalls the day in May when a gunman killed 19 of his classmates and two teachers. On a morning many Uvalde families had dreaded, a new school year began in the small South Texas town with big hugs on the sidewalks, patrol cars parked on every corner and mothers wiping away tears as they walked down the sidewalk to the drop-off line.
Read more: Uvalde school board fires district police chief 3 months after mass shooting
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Uvalde School Board Fires District Police Chief 3 Months After Mass Shooting
Mata was ready to return, this time with his own cell phone. His mother, Korina Komacho, had a harder time letting her child return to class. Story continues below ad “There’s a time when he can take out his phone and text us that he’s OK,” she said after taking him to a new school, Flores Elementary, and leaving him behind doors with new locks. “That’s like, ‘Okay, that’s good. Now I feel better.” Outside Uvalde Elementary, teachers in matching turquoise shirts emblazoned with “Together We Rise & Together We Are Better” gently led students through a newly installed 8-foot fence and past a state trooper standing outside the front entrance . “Good morning sunshine!” greeted a teacher. “Are you ready to have a good school year?” Robb Elementary, where the May 24 attack took place, is permanently closed and will eventually be demolished. A large memorial with stuffed animals, photos of victims and crosses remains outside the scene of one of the deadliest mass shootings in US history. 2:08 Uvalde school board fires police chief 3 months after Texas mass shooting Uvalde school board fires police chief 3 months after Texas mass shooting – August 25, 2022 Outside of the other schools in Uvalde — which are a short drive away — some additional security measures the district rushed to implement after the attack were incomplete. Trending Stories
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Story continues below ad Security cameras are still in the works. New metal fencing surrounds some campuses, partially encloses others and is not at all at Flores Elementary, where many Robb students are enrolled this year. The attack lasted more than 70 minutes before police finally confronted and killed the gunman. The delay angered parents and led to a damning petition from state lawmakers. Now more police are on patrol, but mistrust is rampant. “There is a big gap here. Anyone can walk,” said Celeste Ibarra, 30, pointing to the new barrier around Uvalde Elementary while standing in her front yard across the street. Ibarra’s oldest daughter, 9-year-old Aubriella Melchor, was at Robb Elementary during the shooting and seemed to be pulling as hard as possible Tuesday morning, taking longer than usual to get dressed and eat breakfast. When back-to-school shopping started, she didn’t want to go to Walmart, and the glitter pencils Ibarra bought to get her daughter excited didn’t work. “She was just playing with her cereal,” Ibarra said after dropping her off. “He was thinking. I know he was scared.”
Read more: Robb Elementary principal in Uvalde fired by school district
Uvalde starts late for school: Classes resumed weeks ago in many parts of Texas, where other districts encouraged students and teachers Tuesday to show support by wearing Uvalde’s crimson colors. “We all stand with you,” First Lady Jill Biden tweeted. Story continues below ad Uvalde pushed back the first day of class after a summer of heartbreak, anger and revelations that the nearly 400 police who rushed to the scene waited so long to go inside the classroom. Steve McCraw, the head of the Texas Department of Public Safety, called the response a “gross failure,” and the district fired school police chief Pete Arredondo last month. Over the summer, more than 100 students at Uvalde signed up for virtual learning. Others were transferred to private schools. Elsa Avila, a fourth-grade teacher who was shot in the abdomen and survived, missed the first day of school Tuesday for the first time in 30 years. For Mata’s family, virtual school wasn’t really in the conversation: Gilbert didn’t do well with online classes during the pandemic. And besides, he wanted to go to Flores Elementary with his friends, said his mother and Michael Martinez, his stepfather. Mata is one of 11 survivors of the class whose families remain in contact, Comacho said. A bullet ricocheted through his ankle and calf in room 112. The added security measures have brought little comfort to Martinez, who tried to put things off when it came to day one. “I wasn’t ready for him to go back to school, but he says he was,” Martinez said. During an open house at Flores Elementary, Martinez said when he pressed a teacher about how they would protect students this time, the response was an unsatisfactory summary about the new locks. Story continues below ad “He didn’t answer what I really asked him. So, how will you help? How will you save my child if something happens?’ Martinez said. “He didn’t give me what I wanted to hear.” Admittedly, Martinez said, he wasn’t sure what he wanted to hear. He just knows he wasn’t reassured. “I just wanted to hear something to change his mind,” she said. © 2022 The Canadian Press
