"Do better, be better!" Frustrated parents and students lash out at Uvalde officials, ahead of return to school

Record ID: 1687110

  • Title: "Do better, be better!" Frustrated parents and students lash out at Uvalde officials, ahead of return to school
  • Date: 2nd September 2022
  • Summary: UVALDE, TEXAS, UNITED STATES (AUGUST 29, 2022) (Reuters) ***WARNING: CONTAINS FLASH PHOTOGRAPHY*** PAN OF UVALDE HIGH SCHOOL’S JOHN H. HARRELL AUDITORIUM SHOWING MEMBERS OF THE PUBLIC AND UVALDE SCHOOL DISTRICT BOARD MEMBERS AUDIENCE LISTENING TO SPEAKER SOUNDBITE (English) CAITLYNE GONZALES, STUDENT, SAYING: “Um, you want me to go to your schools, right?” “Yes.” “I don’t know how long that will last. Thank you.” VARIOUS OF AUDIENCE AND BOARD MEMBERS AT TOWN HALL MEETING SOUNDBITE (English) BRETT CROSS, UNCLE OF VICTIM UZIYAH GARCIA, SAYING: “I don't think that they've handled it at all. I think they just keep trying to put Band-Aids on a gunshot wound.” SOUNDBITE (English) BRETT CROSS, UNCLE OF VICTIM UZIYAH GARCIA, SAYING: “None of y’all care and it’s evident. And y’all just sit there, can’t answer yes or no questions. Y’all act like, ‘Oh, oh, this is important,’ but like she said, y’all ain’t even halfway done. Y’all don’t care. And you want to know why? It’s because y’all’s lives weren’t robbed. Be better! Do better! Get off your ass and do something. SOUNDBITE (English) BRETT CROSS, UNCLE OF VICTIM UZIYAH GARCIA, SAYING: “Anybody who was there on May 24th, the whole system needs to be wiped out. It was a systematic failure from the top to the bottom. Everybody is complicit in it. And nobody wants to take accountability and say that, look, we messed up. They still don't know. So.”
  • Embargoed: 16th September 2022 11:14
  • Keywords: gun violence mass shooting robb elementary school shooting school safety school shooting texas uvalde
  • Location: UVALDE, TEXAS, UNITED STATES
  • City: UVALDE, TEXAS, UNITED STATES
  • Country: USA
  • Topics: Crime/Law/Justice,Crime,United States
  • Reuters ID: LVA001195431082022RP1
  • Aspect Ratio: 16:9
  • Story Text: Brett Cross had some questions for the Uvalde school board when it met earlier this week for a special town hall meeting.
    His nephew, Uziyah Garcia, 10, was among those killed at the Robb Elementary shooting in May.
    The boy lived with Cross, who considered him a son. Cross wanted to know about the board investigation into the actions of the school district’s police officers and their failed response to the massacre.
    He was told that the investigation had yet to start.
    “Y’all don’t care,” Cross told the school board members on Monday. “And you want to know why? It’s because y’all’s lives weren’t robbed. Be better! Do better! Get off your ass and do something.”
    Cross asked about the status of security improvements on school campuses, like fencing.
    The fences would not be completed by the time Uvalde’s children return to the classroom this Tuesday, their first time back in schools since the May 24 shooting at Robb Elementary left 19 students and two teachers dead.
    Javier Cazares’ daughter Jacklyn Cazares was one of the victims.
    He felt uneasy about his older daughter Jazmin entering her final year of high school.
    “I have a senior in high school this year,” Cazares said. “As a father, of course, I’m hesitant for her to come to school. But she wants to experience it, her senior year.”
    At one point during the meeting, a young girl, Caitlyne Gonzales, asked the school board if they want her to remain a student at their schools.
    “I don’t know how long that will last. Thank you,” Gonzales said after an affirmative answer from superintendent Hal Harrell.
    After the meeting, attendees gathered outside to express their disapproval a little more than a week before the school year was set to start.
    “They just keep trying to put Band Aids on a gunshot wound,” Cross said after the meeting about the school board’s performance. “If they would just act on half the things they talk about, it might make us feel better.”
    (Production: Evan Garcia)
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