The principal of Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, will be allowed to return to work after a brief suspension in the wake of the May 24 shooting at the school that killed 19 students and two teachers.
An attorney for Principal Mandy Gutierrez confirmed to the Washington Examiner on Thursday that Uvalde Superintendent Hal Harrell has reinstated Gutierrez after she was placed on paid administrative leave on Monday.
ROBB ELEMENTARY SCHOOL PRINCIPAL SUSPENDED BY UVALDE SCHOOL DISTRICT, ATTORNEY SAYS
“Vindication is not what she sought. She sought merely to be allowed to continue her efforts to assist in the healing process for the families in the community she loves,” Gutierrez attorney Ricardo Cedillo told the Washington Examiner on Thursday.
“She understands and respects that the grieving process might involve anger. That is a natural reaction, and she respects and empathizes with everything those affected are going through. She prays for the strength to focus on the healing process that will be prolonged and probably never-ending,” Cedillo said.
Gutierrez had been suspended on the heels of a Texas House committee report that noted a “culture of noncompliance” at the school prior to the massacre. The report found the door the gunman used to enter the school wasn’t locked like it should have been and that the door to one of the classrooms he entered was likely unlocked as well.
The classroom lock was known by Gutierrez and other school employees to be faulty, but no work order was ever placed to fix it, according to the report.
A letter to Gutierrez from Harrell notifying the principal of her reinstatement said Gutierrez had submitted a response to the findings in the Texas House report and that “as a result of our review, you will be allowed to return to work.”
Gutierrez wrote to investigators after her suspension, arguing that the doors at the school did in fact lock. She claimed custodians check that doors are locked daily and that “the teacher in charge of that classroom complained on more than one occasion that because the door did lock, his workday was interrupted because the printer for several classrooms was located in that room.”
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Gutierrez also said in the letter that she had “no recollection or record” of complaints about faulty locks.
So far, two Uvalde law enforcement officials, Uvalde school district police Chief Pete Arredondo and acting Uvalde police Chief Mariano Pargas, remain on administrative leave in the wake of the shooting. However, the Uvalde City Council is in the process of investigating every city officer who responded to the shooting.
