For over a decade school shootings in the United States have been at an all-time high. The so-called safe haven that schools try hard to protect has been deteriorating with threats coming left and right. There were 40 school shootings this year alone. One school shooting in particular that had people confused and angry was at Robb Elementary, in Uvalde, Texas. The way that the policies and school resources officers handle this was strange and out of the ordinary. Making the nation question the safety and security of school itself.

It was a normal, sunny day on May 24th, 2022, in Uvalde Texas. Summer break was only six days away for the kids of Robb Elementary School. However, nearby, Salvador Ramos, the shooter of this horrific incident, shot his 66-year-old grandmother. He flees the premises, giving the grandmother the ability to go get help from a nearby neighbor. 

Ramos gets into his vehicle and starts to drive to Robb Elementary School. Once he got there, he crashed his vehicle. He exits his vehicle on the passenger side, holding a Defense AR-15-style assault rifle. He was wearing a backpack containing ammunition, tactical gear, and a vest that had ammunition. But there was no armor that would protect him if he were to get shot Then he fired upon two people nearby a funeral home that witnessed the crash, but thankfully the two people did not get injured. 

There was a teacher that saw everything go down. At first, she called 911 due to the crash but then realized that he had a gun. When she saw that he fried at the two people she went back into the school and locked the door behind her. Soon after, Ramos jumps a fence to get into the school campus. The first set of police officers were called to go check out the two people that got fired upon. 

Ramos then shoots multiple bullets at the exterior of the school. After that Ramos enters the inside of the school, and then enters a classroom to his left. He shoots approximately 100 rounds of animation into students and teachers. Three officers enter the building, the same way Ramos did. A few minutes later three more officers joined. Ramos started shooting at the police officers, and the officers started to retreat. Seven Border Patrol agents enter the school through the west door. Soon after, the first balicts shield was brought into the school. 

One conversation with the officers that abcnews.go.com covered showed the officer’s reaction to kids being in the classroom. “Conversation heard over body camera footage:”Y’all don’t know if there’s kids in there?” an unknown officer asks.“If there are kids in there, we need to go in there,” a DPS special agent says.”What’s that?” an unknown officer says.“If there are kids in there, we need to go in there,” the DPS special agent says.“Whoever is in charge will determine that,” an unknown officer says.“

While all this was happening inside the school, parents were outside watching the horror unravel.

 Many were shocked that the police officers were just standing there and not entering. When some of the parents realized that the cops weren’t going to go in, some decided to go into the school themselves and rescue their kids. The police stopped anyone from entering the campus. 

According to Thomas Kingsley, a news reporter for www.independent.co. he states, “ Ms Gomez has two children in second and third grade and had reportedly driven 40 miles to the school after hearing of the attack. After pleading with officers, she claims she was placed in handcuffs and told she was under arrest for intervening in an active investigation. Ms. Gomez says she was later able to jump the school fence and rescue her children herself after she convinced an officer she knew to get the marshall to free her.”

More than 19 officers were in that one hallway waiting on what to do next. Another conversation covered by abcnews.go.com showed that there was more hesitation by the officers on what to do next. “A DPS special agent indicates he wants to clear more rooms. An unknown officer responds, “Don’t you think we should have a supervisor approve that?” to which the special agent responds, “He’s not my supervisor,” according to body camera footage.” Two more ballistic shields were brought into the school. 

While all of this is going on, kids from the nearby classrooms are calling 911, and more officers come to the scene. The officers were determined to get into the classroom and help the kids inside. However, there were some officers waiting for authorization from higher ranks within the police department. A few minutes go by and more officers are at the school. Still waiting for that clearance to enter many classrooms, officers grow impatient and start to gear up to enter. From putting on gas masks, getting their weapons out, and starting to put up their ballistics shields. A unit of border patrol agents breaches the door by using a set of keys given by a school janitor. While entering the classroom an officer killed Ramos.

Mrs. Wisniewski, the law and public safety teacher here at Agua Fria, and a retired officer for seventeen years and a half had something to say about this whole situation. “To me, they didn’t follow procedures that we were trained on. Here in the Phoenix Metropolitan area, we were trained for school shootings. When the first ones started happening, we started preparing for the next one. I’ve been retired for a couple of years, I don’t know how they do things anymore. Though, when I was trained on this we would just go straight in, we had our tools.” 

Mrs.Wisniewski dealt with a lot while being on duty for those seventeen years, she stated “I took care of criminals calls, civil distributes, traffic incidents, I just did so many things.” Mrs. Wisniwski explained that even in the early ’90s, non-school shootings in Los Angeles prepared officers for whatever situation. Those police officers were handling things that they never saw. They were now handling body armor and even more deadly weapons. The outcome of all that was officers being more prepared for whatever comes their way.

As the world saw this deviating shooting, lots of people were wondering what could have prevented this from occurring. Many are calling on the US government to do something. At the people’s request, Congress did pass a gun control bill a month later. This bill made background checks for people younger than twenty-one more thorough and gave more funding to mental health programs and school security.

Though this is the first step to helping solve a bigger problem we as a nation have. There are still things to do before we can call school safe again. Always remember, if you see something, say something.