The mayor of Uvalde, Texas recently suggested that Robb Elementary School ‘needs to be gone’ after the May 24 shooting at the school that left 19 children and two teachers dead.
Mayor Don McLaughlin spoke about the shooting with KENS5 news in San Antonio and said “I don’t think anybody’s plans are to tear that building down.”
“It needs to be torn down. I would never ask, expect, a child to have to walk through those doors ever, ever again. That building needs to be gone. Taken away. Gone,” McLaughlin said.
On May 24, shooter Salvador Ramos, 18, traveled to the school and fatally shot two teachers and 19 students in one classroom. Officials with the Texas Department of Public Safety put together a timeline of events, with Ramos entering the school at about 11:30 a.m. local time and was eventually shot by Border Patrol officers at 12:50 p.m.
Officers said they heard hundreds of gunshots fired by Ramos shortly after he entered the school and Texas Department of Public Safety Director Steven McCraw explained how 911 received several calls from students inside the classroom while the shooting occurred.
Robb Elementary School shooting was the deadliest in the U.S. since the 2012 Sandy Hook massacre, in Newtown, Connecticut. The recent incident has prompted many calls for action to prevent another incident. Many Democrats have called for stricter gun control measures while Republicans have called for teachers to be armed to defend themselves and students.
In agreeance with Mayor McLaughlin, other Texas officials have made remarks about destroying the school.
“I’m going to be pushing the president and the governor to work together to make sure that they’re able to build them a new school,” said Texas Representative Joaquin Castro according to KENS5.
Senator Roland Guitierrez told KSAT news that he recently spoke with President Joe Biden after he visited Uvalde and the two spoke about possibly destroying the school.
Gutierrez told KSAT that Biden told him “we’re going to look to raze that school and build a new one.”