News of the school’s naming comes as new body camera video was released from the 2022 school shooting at Robb Elementary.
UVALDE, Texas — The Uvalde CISD school board approved the name of a new school set to replace Robb Elementary: Legacy Elementary School.
The Uvalde CISD Moving Forward Foundation recommended the name, having settled on it after considering 28 others. Officials said the new school, which is still being constructed, will honor the victims who died in the mass shooting that left 19 students and two teachers dead in May 2022.
The naming of the new elementary school is especially personal for Uvalde CISD Trustee Jesse Rizo. He’s among the newest school board members, having run for the position after his niece, Jackie Cazares, died at Robb.
“I think it’s a step forward also in the healing process,” Rizo said. “It’s to let the families know, the community know that we haven’t forgotten about the children and the teachers.”
There are days when Rizo drives by the construction site of the school feeling anguish, but also a glimpse of hope for a brighter future in the Uvalde community.
“It’s sad why there’s a new school that’s being built,” he said. “But at the same time, it’s other children that had nothing to do with May 24 that are going to be able to, hopefully, have a better life at the sacrifice of other people.”
On top of naming the school, trustees will receive guidance from a University of Texas research team on how to proceed with a permanent memorial at the corner in front of Robb Elementary.
“We want to make sure that the families are included, that they feel welcomed, that they know they have a seat at the table and that ultimately, like a lot of other people, they’re going to be responsible for the decision making. But we don’t want to burden the families,” Rizo said.
The Uvalde community broke ground on the new elementary school last year, and on-site construction began in March.
The project is expected to cost nearly $60 million with funding efforts still ongoing. In a statement to KENS 5, a spokesperson for Uvalde Moving Forward Foundation said they’ve raised more than 83% their goal for construction.
The new, state-of-the-art facility will house grades 2-4 and a total of 800 students. It will feature 9-foot-tall privacy gates, keyless entry points and a specific road that would create an easier access point for first responders. It would also have an air-conditioned gym and two playgrounds, including one for children with special needs.
The school is set to be located at 820 East Leona Road, adjacent to Dalton Elementary School. Construction is expected to be finished this fall.
New footage released from shooting response
Earlier in the day on Tuesday, more videos of law enforcement’s response to the 2022 tragedy at Robb were released. Uvalde officials had previously failed to release the footage footage as part of a legal settlement with news organizations suing for access.
The new material included at least 10 police body camera videos and nearly 40 dashboard videos that largely affirm prior reporting by ProPublica, The Texas Tribune and FRONTLINE detailing law enforcement’s failures to engage the teen shooter who killed 19 children and two teachers. Officers only confronted the gunman 77 minutes after he began firing, a delay that U.S. Attorney General Merrick Garland said cost lives.
In one 30-minute video released Tuesday, officers lined up in the school hallway as they prepared to breach a classroom door about an hour after the shooter first entered the building. The footage, while not new, showed a slightly different angle from what had previously been released. In it, victims are completely blurred, but their cries and screams can be heard and blood is visible in the hallway. The video also shows officers performing chest compressions on a victim on the sidewalk.
In another video, an officer wearing a body camera is crying at points, telling someone on the phone: “They’re just kids. It’s f*cked up.” He adds, “I just never thought shit like that would happen here.” Another officer asks if he should take his weapon from him and tells him to sit down and “relax.” That seven-minute video after the breach shows medics working on someone in an ambulance.
“Any new piece of material or evidence that comes out, I’m going to watch and pore over because I need to know everything that happened,” said Brett Cross, whose son, Uziyah Garcia, was killed at Robb. “Uziyah, he deserves for me to continue to fight until my final breath.”
