Uvalde community members unimpressed with security changes following school shooting

UVALDE, Texas - Next week, students in Uvalde will return to campuses for the first time since the massacre at Robb Elementary in May.

Parents received an update about the district's security and support plan on Monday. The changes include more counselors on campuses, fencing surrounding schools, DPS troopers on campuses and extra security cameras.

Families who attended the meeting weren't impressed.

Uvalde community members addressed the school board while it updated parents on the security upgrades for the upcoming school year, but their changes aren’t easing fears.

"And then these children have to go and face these same officers that they heard outside their building, their walls, hoping that they were going to come in and save them and they didn’t," one parent said. 

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The district says 33 Texas DPS officers will be assigned to its eight campuses. But some in Uvalde blame Texas DPS and other agencies for the delays in moving in on the shooter.

"Those were the people that failed us. They didn’t protect the children or the staff," another parent said.

Last week, the school board fired Uvalde CISD Police Chief Pete Arredondo. 

Monday, they say there’s no timetable to hire his replacement. Now, some want Uvalde CISD police officers suspended or even terminated. 

The Uvalde County district attorney is still investigating their actions.

The district says its security upgrades include the hiring of new officers from outside communities. They are adding 500 security camera as well as additional fencing, counselors and campus monitors.

But it’s clear the Uvalde community lacks trust and comfort.

"You’ve dug a big hole," one parent said. "You’ve got to get out of this hole someway somehow."

School starts on Sept. 6.