Leaked Uvalde Video Footage Is Again Raising Concerns Over School Safety
Leaked footage depicting the Uvalde school shooting police response is outraging citizens who can now watch authorities stand idly by.
The last few years of school have been marred by the pandemic, and any headway and success felt this past school year was overshadowed by the tragic incident at the Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas. 19 young children and two teachers were murdered by an 18-year-old gunman, and much of the summer has been spent arguing over gun reform, the hardening of schools, and the police response to the Uvalde school shooting. While the discussions never necessarily died down concerning these horrific events, they are once again refueled by the release of leaked footage depicting the more than hour-long police response in the school’s hallway. See the footage below, but in warning, the content may be disturbing to some.
Two days ago, the Austin American-Stateman newspaper leaked surveillance footage of law enforcement’s response during the Uvalde school shooting that occurred on May 24th. The media outlet’s disregard for the respect of family members has outraged many, as they were shocked and appalled to find that the news stations had released the footage even loved ones had yet to be shown. Now that the video has been shared across multiple outlets, and viewed by users countless times, people are even more outraged at the lack of response by police, as people use the incident to call for more police accountability and safety concerns.
The nearly 80-minute-long video clearly paints a picture of how awfully the Uvalde school shooting was handled. After the gunman enters the school, you can hear the hundreds of rounds being fired as he walked into a classroom. The sound was altered to omit the screams of the children. The first responding officers are seen entering the hallway minutes after the gunman opened fire, yet they are shown quickly retreating when they hear more shots, despite the fact that they knew he was already firing inside the room filled with children.
Critics of pro-gun activists that wish to see more guns and policing inside schools were quick to use this as an example of why more guns won’t necessarily stop tragic incidents like the Uvalde school shooting from occurring in the future. Furthermore, people are speaking out against the actions taken against the responding authorities, as the Associated Press reports that since then, only one of the on-hand officers involved has been placed on administrative leave.
Still, local and state leaders are urging the public to let the investigation play out before jumping to conclusions. But given the fact that the Uvalde school shooting is now the deadliest of its kind in history, and the fact that the massacre took place nearly two months ago now, the newly leaked footage is further incriminating those who stood by idly. And in the meantime, others continue the debate over what the solution to deter these events from playing out may be.
What is known as the hardening of schools is one major push conservative lawmakers are looking at. This means one point of entrance for entry to schools, despite the fact that it may make entering school an arduous task for school staff. But given the fact that emergency exits still need to exist, and the door used in the Uvalde school shooting was supposed to lock, critics of this tactic say it won’t always work to stop criminals from gaining entry as they push for stricter gun laws instead.
Unfortunately, there is simply no clear-cut solution to stop criminals from gaining entry to schools completely. Many Americans now fear that it is something the nation has to live with. If anything, releasing the Uvalde school shooting footage to the public has only riled up emotions even more, and furthered the divide over what the answer is to raising school safety.
