Mandy Gutierrez, the principal of Robb Elementary School, has been reinstated after she was placed on paid administrative leave earlier this week.
“Thank you for responding to our request for information by submitting your response to the House Investigative Report. As a result of our review, you will be allowed to return to work on this date,” Uvalde CISD Superintendent Hal Harrell wrote in a letter to Gutierrez on Thursday.
Gutierrez had been placed on leave after a 77-page report from the Texas Special House committee investigating the shooting alleged a “culture of noncompliance” at Robb Elementary regarding safety flaws that exacerbated the death toll on May 24.
In a letter to the special House committee, Gutierrez disputed the allegations in the report, noting that she received an “accomplished” rating on her most recent performance review, which specifically concluded that she “create[d] a safe environment” at the school.
Gutierrez also denied that the door lock for classroom 111, one of the rooms where the shooting occurred, was faulty and that school administrators took no steps to fix it, as the report claimed.
“In particular, staff and students widely knew the door to one of the victimized classrooms, Room 111, was ordinarily unsecured and accessible,” the House committee’s report said.
“Room 111 could be locked, but an extra effort was required to make sure the latch engaged. Many knew Room 111’s door had a faulty lock, and school district police had specifically warned the teacher about it. The problem with locking the door had been reported to school administration, yet no one placed a written work order for a repair.”
In her letter, Gutierrez refuted that claim, stating that “the teacher in charge of that classroom complained on more than one occasion that the door did lock, breaking up his work day because the printer for several classrooms was located in that room.” She added that the school custodian ensured every classroom door was locked daily.
The principal wrote that neither she nor her predecessor had “recollection or record of those complaints” from teachers that the door’s lock was faulty. Gutierrez was in her first year as principal after more than two decades of employment at the school.
Gutierrez acknowledged that the shooter gained access to room 111 but said it would be “inaccurate to conclude that it was because the door to classroom 111 did not lock.”
Gutierrez’s letter also addressed the report’s assertions about her actions after a weak wi-fi signal prevented the school’s alert system from performing its intended function.
After the alert system failed, Gutierrez “did not attempt to communicate the lockdown alert over the school’s intercom,” the report claimed, and instead called Uvalde schools police chief Pete Arredondo, who has also been placed on leave.
Gutierrez wrote that she was explicitly trained not to use the intercom system in active shooter situations.
“Our training emphasized that using the Public Address System could compound the problem in creating a panic situation with students and an alert to the one or more gunman that was present to do maximum harm,” she wrote.
Gutierrez concluded her letter by writing that it was “unfair and inaccurate” to deduce that she was complacent regarding security issues.
“I will live with the horror of these events for the rest of my life,” Gutierrez wrote. “I want to keep my job not only so that I can provide for my family, but so that I can continue to be on the frontlines helping children who survived, the families of all affected and the entire Uvalde community that I love and want to continue to protect.”
She needs to hang for being stupid and not following guidelines that got all the kids murdered by that F-ing LOSER