UVALDE – The members of the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District (UCISD) had the opportunity to fire its embattled school police chief during the June 3 school board meeting and declined to do so.
It’s unclear how Arredondo continues to show his face in public, while continuing to collect a taxpayer funded check for his multiple failures during a mass shooting that claimed the lives of 19 students and 2 teachers.
What’s most disappointing is the message the board is sending to the community that their loyalty to Arredondo supersedes students and teachers lives and their safety.
As incident commander, Arredondo made the decision to wait more than an hour for backup instead of ordering officers at the scene to immediately confront the shooter who killed 19 students and two teachers. The head of the state police later said this was the “wrong decision, period.”
Many residents had called on Arredondo to quit or be sacked, saying decisive action could have potentially saved lives. Although the agenda for Friday’s meeting allowed the board to terminate Arredondo, the board declined to do so.
“The only thing that was important to me at this time was to save as many teachers and children as possible,” Arredondo said.
He failed to save any lives after waiting for keys that school police should already have. He declined to allow trained officers to breech the door, which also opens up scrutiny if Arredondo himself takes the same training as his staff.
Superintendent Hal Harrell said he is eager for several concurrent investigations, including ones by Uvalde County’s district attorney and federal Department of Justice, to run their course. But he told the 25 residents in attendance that he had no additional information to provide, other than reassuring parents that children would never return to Robb.
What further information does he need? Arredondo at one point stopped cooperating with investigators, and sneakily allowed himself to be sworn into the city council while the community prepared to bury their loved ones.
Pete Arredondo only cares about his damn self and the members of the board are supporting him possibly because they appointed him and didn’t bother to learn if he was qualified or not.
Arredondo has only been on the job with Uvalde since 2020. His bio states he has law enforcement experience,where he achieved the rank of Captain in a previous school district in 2017. Arredondo doesn’t have the leadership skills necessary to command a police department. All of his alleged experience went out the window when the proverbial sh** hit the fan.
Pete Arredondo needs to be fired and the board needs to be voted out the next chance voters get.
*this article represents the opinion of 2UrbanGirls*
