Failing todays children

How the system failed in Uvalde school shooting

On May 24th, 19 innocent children and two teachers were killed in an elementary school in Uvalde Texas after an 18 year old male came into the school and opened fire. Now reviewing the aftermath of this tragedy, police are now discussing the systematic failures that happened both within the school as well as within the hands of the police department. After reviewing the report, The Texas Tribune found that there were failures in many areas including, a family unable to recognize warning signs from the shooter, a school district that did not follow its safety plan, and a police response that went against its own active shooter training. On the scene, 376 police officers were enlisted onto the scene in a chaotic and uncoordinated manner, where they failed at communicating effectively, and in a timely manner taking down the active shooter. Now facing public criticism, officials urged questions as to why the police on scene did not immediately act against the shooter, as trained to do so, stating that "They failed to prioritize saving the lives of innocent victims over their own safety" (Despart 1). In addition, Robb Elementary school failed in many aspects of school safety as well, leaving doors unlocked, propping interior doors open, failure of doors locks working properly, unstable organization of master keys, and the lack of urgency that teachers took when being notified of the alert. Looking into the life of the shooter both online and in person, there were several missed warning signs including, nicknames like "school shooter" being posted online, a search history of gore and violence, harassing co-workers, and his eagerness to buy guns and having other people acquire those for him. All together the system failed in many ways. Many after reading this would be shocked that since after the 1999 Columbine school shooting, we are still not taking warning signs seriously and still not officially taking the matter of school safety as a top priority. WE ARE STILL NOT DOING ENOUGH.