Uvalde paper calls police response 'a rudderless ship cast into a hurricane,' calls for more accountability and training

The Uvalde Leader-News, the twice-weekly newspaper in the town where an 18-year-old used an assault rifle to kill 19 students and two teachers, and wound 17 others on May 24, called in an editorial Sunday for more accountability for the failed police response ("a rudderless ship cast into a hurricane") and more training to prevent further such disasters. Here is the full editorial: 

    The special [state] House report on the mass shooting at Robb Elementary has delivered a devastating blow to public trust in two of our most revered institutions. Law enforcement and the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District are singled out in the 77-page document for “multiple systemic failures.” The question that we must all consider and somehow answer is how the community goes about restoring trust.
    It is a profound challenge without precedent. No mass school shooting in the United States has ended with such glaring failures in both the law enforcement response and school district security. That fact alone has been an egregious multiplier of the misery felt by the families of victims and, by extension, the entire community.
    The House committee report, which has been widely accepted as the most credible accounting to date of the May 24 attack, described the law enforcement response as “chaotic” and “uncoordinated.” According to the report, since Columbine in 1999, active shooter training requires all officers to embrace the mantra “stop the killing, stop the dying,” even if it means sacrificing their own lives.
    “At Robb Elementary law enforcement responders failed to adhere to their active shooter training, and they failed to prioritize saving the lives of innocent victims over their own safety,” the report reads.
    Furthermore, the school district’s written active shooter plan (UCISD officers hosted and helped instruct an active shooter training course for area law enforcement last March) directed the school police chief to assume command of the scene.
    As we are all painfully aware, neither UCISD police chief Pete Arredondo, acting city chief Mariano Pargas, Uvalde County Sheriff Ruben Nolasco nor any state or federal officer among the 376 responders to the scene was willing to take the helm of what was clearly a rudderless ship cast into a hurricane.
    So how do we restore these ailing institutions to something approximating health? The school district took a halting first step on June 22 by placing Arredondo on administrative leave. A special meeting scheduled yesterday to consider terminating the chief was canceled Friday after Arredondo requested a formal hearing. His status is now unpaid administrative leave.
    Assuming Arredondo will soon be gone, the district should not simply add more officers to a force born of a failed culture. Administration needs to start over or disband the department altogether, as is being done by an increasing number of districts across the nation.
   UCISD building security, which received withering criticism, can be enhanced. Doors that lock reliably, lockdown alerts that actually work, and meaningful perimeter fencing could have bought the few minutes necessary to stop the Robb killer.
    For any of that to be effective, school employees will have to shake off a sense of complacency and be willing to follow strict guidelines. No propping open doors, no substitute teachers without keys, and lockdown protocols that distinguish between an active shooter and the ongoing bailouts that plague our region.
    The city of Uvalde has placed Pargas on administrative leave and is preparing for an independent review of the entire department. Following that analysis, some officers may find themselves unemployed. That will be part of the costly but necessary process of restoring trust.
    None of these measures eliminate the need for further accountability. And while spreading it around – especially among the battalion of officers who responded to Robb – is appropriate, it does not change one important fact. If our city is ever again called upon to stop an active shooter, we must have officers in place who can execute the mission without backup or hesitation. That is what the training calls for. And that is what we should demand.