A Texas appeals court recently ordered that the school district release records it was withholding related to the 2022 tragedy.
SAN ANTONIO — The Uvalde CISD Board of Trustees has approved releasing the district’s records related to the 2022 Robb Elementary School shooting following a lawsuit by KENS 5 and other news outlets seeking emails, texts and other communications connected to the tragedy.
The school board’s decision comes on the heels of last week’s Texas appeals court order that Uvalde County and the school district must release their records. Trustees on Monday night unanimously agreed to do so, with many board members nothing the importance of transparency.
“There’s nothing we can say that can fix any of this, but I do hope we can at least open that door,” said Robert Quinones, one of those Uvalde CISD trustees. “You have a committed board up here and we’re trying to do the right thing. This is a step in that right direction. We need to get back on track where the community can trust us, get back to where we used to be.”
During a public comment portion of the meeting before the vote, a community member implored the district to “stop fighting the release of records.”
“There’s nothing in those records, in those files, that can hurt any one of us any more than the pain we’ve already endured,” she said.
Nineteen students and two teachers were killed when a gunman entered Robb on May 24, 2022. He was inside for 77 minutes before law enforcement took action in what has been widely decried as a botched response.
Uvalde County District Attorney Christina Mitchell had opposed providing the records, pointing to criminal proceedings against former Uvalde school district Police Chief Pete Arredondo that she said could be hampered by the documents’ release. But Judge Velia Meza with Texas’ Fourth Court of Appeals wrote in the opinion for the case that the criminal proceedings and a separate lawsuit were not enough reasons to withhold the records.
“In response, these entities offered only minimal justification — citing a grand jury investigation and a civil lawsuit — without providing legal or evidentiary support for withholding the information,” Meza wrote.
Arredondo is facing several felony charges of child endangerment, with a trial date set for October.
In a statement, Laura Prather, a media law attorney with Haynes Boone representing the news organizations, said the ruling sends a clear message to government officials that “vague legal claims” cannot be used to withhold records.
A date on which the records will be released has not been set. But trustees promised they would given families with ties to the shooting plenty of notice before releasing them.
The City of Uvalde last year released previously withheld documents, video and 911 calls related to the shooting.
This story contains reporting by the Texas Tribune.