Joseph Guillen
Members of law enforcement lay flowers at a makeshift memorial outside Robb Elementary School.
A mere three days after being placed on paid administrative leave, Mandy Gutierrez — the principal of Uvalde's Robb Elementary School — is back on the job, according to a letter her attorney shared with TV station KSAT.
The letter from Uvalde Superintendent Hal Harrell said Gutierrez was allowed to return to work Thursday after offering new information to a Texas House committee investigating the May 24 massacre at Robb, the worst school shooting in state history.
Gutierrez's return comes after she publicly pushed back at findings in the House committee's report detailing purported security shortcomings at the Robb campus. Those include allegations that she never announced a lockdown over the school's PA system and failed to fix a lock on a door used by the gunman.
In a letter to the committee obtained by the Texas Tribune, Gutierrez disputed claims that she created a lax security environment at Robb. Further, she argued that she wasn't trained to use the PA system and that the door in question had a functioning lock.
Gutierrez is the second Uvalde school district employee put on leave in the wake of the shooting, which claimed the lives of 19 students and two teachers.
The district's board placed Police Chief Pete Arredondo on leave last month amid widespread criticism of his handling of the law-enforcement response to the shooting.
The board was expected to vote last Saturday whether to fire Arredondo, but opted to push back its meeting at the request of the chief's attorney.
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