Uvalde principal placed on leave pushes back against investigation’s findings about school security

Flowers and gifts sit in front of wooden crosses memorializing the 21 victims of the May 24 mass shooting at Robb Elementary in Uvalde. (Credit: Kaylee Greenlee Beal for The Texas Tribune)

The principal of Robb Elementary School, who was placed on administrative leave more than two months after a mass shooting there, has pushed back on some of a Texas House committee’s conclusions about campus security.

In a letter to the House committee investigating the May 24 shooting, Mandy Gutierrez argued that the door to the classroom the gunman is believed to have entered had a functioning lock, that she was trained not to use the school’s public address system during shooting situations and that there was not a culture of complacency about security at Robb Elementary.