Legacy Elementary is built in memory of the 19 students and two teachers killed in the Robb Elementary shooting more than three years ago.
UVALDE, Texas — On Monday, around 600 students and a cohort of teachers entered the doors of Legacy Elementary School in Uvalde for the first time–opening their books, taking attendance and taking a new step for a community moving forward in the aftermath of tragedy.
The school was built in memory of the 19 students and two teachers killed in the Robb Elementary School shooting on May 24, 2022. On this day, the families of children who were lost marked a new chapter of remembering their loved ones.
Rojelio Toress’ mother, Evadulia Orta, is among them. She greeted the day with courage and grief.
Unable to send her son to this new school, Rojelio’s little sister started fourth grade at Legacy Elementary.
“The last time I saw my son, I said, ‘I love you’ and I didn’t see him again,” Orta said.
Orta’s chance to see her son walk through Legacy Elementary was ripped away.
“He always loved new buildings and he wanted to be a contractor and a builder.”
Now she has memorials, along with 18 other families who lost children, whose laughter and knowledge will never fill the halls of Legacy Elementary.
Along with teachers who will never plan a lesson behind these closed doors.
“I’m getting up every day because he wouldn’t want me to be in bed… I have him in my head, ‘Come on, Mom, you need to get them ready for school,'” she said.
Orta’s daughter now walks where the memory of every life lost lives on, through the halls of the 116,000-square-foot Uvalde CISD facility that is nearly as twice as big as Robb is. More than $60 million was raised by the Uvalde Moving Forward Foundation to build the school, construction for which started in sprig 2023.
A centerpiece feature of the school’s design is a tree with 19 branches symbolizing the children killed at Robb, as well as two larger ones for the teachers killed in 2022–a reminder of why the school also boasts safety upgrades like doors equipped with sensors in case they’re left open for too long, keypads restricting access to certain areas of the school and bullet-proof glass.
The promise at Legacy: No drop-off will have to ever be a last “I love you.”