Reyes said he complained about the door getting jammed several times over three years. He said he did not complain about the door being locked, but rather about the door getting jammed or stuck throughout the day. “And the reason I know that is we conduct regular walk throughs of the campus and I have myself used my master key to unlock that door.”Īrnulfo Reyes, who taught in room 111, told CNN that Gutierrez’s claims in her letter about the door locking mechanism are not entirely accurate. “What I know for a fact is that the door to room 111 did in fact lock,” she said in the interview. She also wrote she has no recollection of the teacher in that room complaining about the door not locking, according to the letter, which was released by her attorney Wednesday. She said the door to room 111 - one of two classroom where the victims were killed - was checked by custodial staff every evening, including the night before the shooting. In a letter to members of the House Committee that investigated the shooting, Gutierrez disputed several of their findings. Gutierrez, who started as a fourth grade teacher in 2008, has worked for Uvalde CISD for more than two decades. The school board did not comment on her leave at a Monday meeting. Gutierrez has been placed on administrative leave with pay, according to her attorney, Ricardo Cedillo. Up until that very last moment, I was still under the impression that my staff and my students were all safe.” “I did not want to leave until I was reassured that all of my staff and all of my students were out and safe. “I wanted everyone to exit safely,” she said. The principal said she prayed during the shootings and siege that followed. Principal was ‘under the impression that my staff and my students were all safe’ I don’t get to determine the amount of security that we have available on campus.” I don’t get to decide how many rounds of ammunition somebody can purchase. So I don’t get to, I don’t get to decide how old you have to be to purchase a firearm.
Gutierrez added, “I would blame things that are out of my circle of control, which is I don’t get to make the laws. “I don’t feel that I’m in a position to blame anyone.”
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“I’m not law enforcement and I cannot pass judgment and tell them how to do their jobs, just like I would not ask them to tell me how to do mine,” she said. Steven McCraw last month called the police response an “abject failure.” He placed sole blame for the failure to engage the gunman on school district police chief Pedro “Pete” Arredondo, who officials have identified as the on-scene commander.Īrredondo, who is on unpaid administrative leave, has previously said that he did not consider himself to be incident commander that day.Īsked about the law enforcement delay in confronting the shooter, Gutierrez said she is frustrated but not in a position to find fault. Texas Department of Public Safety Director Col.
“And I will second-guess myself for the rest of my life.” “I feel that I followed the training that I was provided with to the best of my abilities,” she said when asked whether she felt she should lose her job. Gutierrez said she immediately initiated a lockdown with an app called Raptor after hearing that an armed man had jumped a school fence.