Today is
Sunday November 24, 2024
AUSTIN (AP) – Texas Education Agency Commissioner Mike Morath on Wednesday said next year lawmakers should ban the use of cellphones in public schools across the state.
Morath’s endorsement of a statewide ban came during his testimony at a Senate Education Committee hearing, where he called the use of cellular devices “extremely harmful†to student progress.
“If it were in my power, I would have already banned them in all schools in the state,†Morath said. “So I would encourage you to consider that as a matter of public policy going forward for our students and our teachers.â€
Morath’s comments fall directly in line with a debate taking place in school systems across the country, a contentious subject that doesn’t divide neatly along party lines. The commissioner brought up the topic of cellphones while testifying about student outcomes on national and state exams. On the most recent state exam, only 41% of Texas students demonstrated an adequate understanding of math, a significant cause for concern among lawmakers Wednesday.
People supporting universal cellphone bans note that the devices distract students from learning and are harmful to children’s mental health.
Others worry that banning cellphones prevents young people from exercising personal responsibility and communicating with their parents during emergencies — a growing concern as mass shootings have become more common throughout the United States. During the Uvalde school shooting, where a gunman massacred 19 students and two teachers, children trapped inside the school used phones to call police for help.
Still, some committee lawmakers on Wednesday responded to Morath’s testimony with an openness to the idea.
“Mental health is becoming a bigger and bigger issue,†said Sen. José Menéndez, D-San Antonio. “I like what you said about if we could get rid of the cellphones, you know. I mean, it would help all of us if we could do that. But we can’t. I mean … how would it look?â€
Morath pointed out that many Texas school districts already ban cellphones in schools, some outright and others only allowing limited use during times like lunch or traveling in between classes.
“Administratively, this is a very doable thing,†he said.
Sen. Donna Campbell, a New Braunfels Republican, said that “while we will make an attempt†to ban cellphones from class during the next legislative session, it is ultimately the responsibility of school districts to take action.
“Everything doesn’t take legislation,†said Campbell, who proposed a bill during the last legislative session that sought to prohibit smartphone use during instructional time. “It takes leadership.â€
Seventy-two percent of high school teachers across the country say that cellphone distractions are a major problem in their classroom, compared with 33% of middle school teachers and 6% of elementary school teachers, according to Pew Research. Seven states thus far have passed laws that ban or restrict cellphone use in schools, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation.
Legislators in California, which has the most students enrolled in public schools in the country, recently approved a bill requiring school districts to develop a policy restricting the use of cellphones by 2026. But it is unclear whether Texas, where more than 5.5 million children go to school, will soon follow suit.
During The Texas Tribune Festival earlier this month, state Rep. Gina Hinojosa, a Democratic member of the Public Education Committee from Austin, said she doesn’t like the use of cellphones in the classroom, “but it may be that we should leave it to school districts to decide that on their own.â€
“I don’t know,†Hinojosa said. “We’ll have to hear the debate.â€
Rep. Ken King, R-Canadian, who also serves on the Public Education Committee, said most of the schools he represents have already restricted cellphones.
“I don’t think we need law for everything,†he said.
FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. (AP) — Jennifer Heath Box had few worries as she exited her cruise ship at Fort Lauderdale’s port on Christmas Eve 2022.
The Texan and her husband had spent six days at sea celebrating with her brother, a Georgia police officer who had just completed cancer treatment. In two hours the couple had a flight home to Houston, where they would spend Christmas with their Marine son, who was leaving for a three-year deployment in Japan, and two other adult children.
But according to a federal civil rights lawsuit filed Thursday by Box against the Broward County Sheriff’s Office, its deputies wrongly arrested her as she disembarked and then jailed her for three days, subjecting her to a body cavity search and blasting her cell with death metal music and freezing air.
Deputies accused the 50-year-old financial systems administrator of being a much younger woman with a similar name who was wanted in Harris County, Texas, for felony child endangerment. Harris County had mistakenly put Box’s photo on its warrant, but none of the other information matched.
“I’ve never done anything to where I would find myself on the other side of bars,” Box said at a Thursday press conference near Port Everglades, Florida. “It was really difficult for me because I had to call my kids and tell them that I wasn’t going to be there†for Christmas.
Box said while being booked, a male inmate tried to enter her cell several times, which she called “terrifying.†She said even after Harris County told Broward they had the wrong woman in custody, she wasn’t released for another day and missed her son’s departure.
“It was humiliating, degrading,†Box said of her treatment.
The Broward Sheriff’s Office issued a statement Thursday saying while it “sympathizes†with Box, the department and deputies Peter Peraza and Monica Jean did nothing wrong. It blames the situation on its Texas counterparts.
“The BSO deputy (Peraza) followed the appropriate protocols in handling this matter, and after receiving confirmation of the Harris County warrant, arrested Ms. Box,†the statement said. “Had it not been for the arrest warrant filed by the Harris County Sheriff’s Office, Customs and Border Patrol would not have flagged Ms. Box, BSO would not have been notified and she would not have been arrested.â€
The groundwork for Box’s mistaken arrest was laid when she boarded the ship nearly a week earlier. U.S. Customs and Border Patrol conducts background checks on cruise passengers and matched her to the Harris County warrant. When her ship returned, she was already targeted for arrest.
Border Patrol officers stopped Box after she scanned her ID to leave the ship and summoned Peraza and Jean.
While it was Box’s photo on the warrant, she and her attorneys say the deputies and later their supervisors refused to acknowledge several obvious discrepancies. Box’s middle and last name were not the same as those on the warrant. She is also 23 years older and 5 inches (13 centimeters) taller than the real suspect and has different colored eyes, hair and skin tone.
Charges against the real suspect were dropped days later by Harris County prosecutors, who called the case “weak.â€
Box’s attorney, Jared McClain of the nonprofit Institute for Justice, said they aren’t suing Harris County because it simply had one employee make a mistake. He said Broward sheriff’s officials, on the other hand, repeatedly refused to look at the evidence and work to correct a mistaken arrest that should have been obvious, even when contacted by Box’s police officer brother.
“At none of those red flags did anyone in Broward County stop and say, ‘Maybe we’re making a mistake here. Maybe we shouldn’t put this woman in jail over Christmas.’ So that’s why we’re here in Broward County,†McClain said.
The lawsuit does not seek a specific monetary amount, but McClain said the arrest cost Box and her family thousands of dollars in additional hotel and legal costs.
Body camera video shows that Box, wearing a sweatshirt reading “Santa Baby,†and her husband are flabbergasted when told she is being arrested, but they remain calm. In return, the deputies never get physical with her or raise their voices.
Box tried to point out the warrant’s discrepancies, but Peraza pointed to the matching photo and said he had to arrest her. Box removed her jewelry, handed it to her husband and then put her hands behind her back to be cuffed as passersby watched.
After Box was placed in Peraza’s patrol car, the deputy again seemed to study the warrant. He opened the door, asked Box again for her full name, which she provides. She points out that both “Jennifer†and “Heath†are common names. He slowly closes the door as he again reads the warrant, but then drives her to jail.
Box says even though the jail was extremely cold, she was given a thin jail uniform while the guards wore stocking caps, heavy jackets and gloves. She said she and her cellmate slept together back-to-back to keep warm.
Finally, a day after she says Broward learned of Harris County’s mistake, she was released. She said she expected an apology, but none was given.
Instead, she says, she was told “stuff happens.â€
DEER PARK (AP) — A pipeline fire that forced hundreds of people to flee their homes in the Houston suburbs burned for a third day Wednesday, with officials saying they don’t expect it to be extinguished until sometime Thursday evening.
Officials said residents who had to evacuate would be allowed to return to their homes starting Wednesday evening.
Authorities have offered few details about what prompted the driver of an SUV to hit an above-ground valve on the pipeline on Monday, sparking the blaze.
Here are some things to know about the situation with the pipeline fire:
Officials say the underground pipeline, which runs under high-voltage power lines in a grassy corridor between a Walmart and a residential neighborhood in Deer Park, was damaged when the SUV driver left the store’s parking lot, entered the wide grassy area and went through a fence surrounding the valve equipment.
Authorities have offered few details on what caused the vehicle to hit the pipeline valve, the identity of the driver or what happened to them. The pipeline company on Wednesday called it an accident. Deer Park officials said preliminary investigations by police and FBI agents found no evidence of a terrorist attack.
Deer Park police won’t be able to reach the burned-out vehicle until the flame has been extinguished. Once the area is safe, the department will be able to continue its investigation and confirm specifics, city spokesperson Kaitlyn Bluejacket said in an email Wednesday.
The valve equipment appears to have been protected by a chain-link fence topped with barbed wire. The pipeline’s operator has not responded to questions about any other safety protections that were in place.
Energy Transfer is the Dallas-based owner of the pipeline, a 20-inch-wide (50-centemeter-wide) conduit that runs for miles through the Houston area.
It carries natural gas liquids through the suburbs of Deer Park and La Porte, both of which are southeast of Houston. Energy Transfer said the fire had diminished overnight and was continuing to “safely burn itself out†on Wednesday.
Energy Transfer also built the Dakota Access Pipeline, which has been at the center of protests and legal battles. The company’s executive chairman, Kelcy Warren, has given millions of dollars in campaign contributions to Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott.
Energy Transfer said its crews were working Wednesday to install specialized isolation equipment on both sides of the damaged section that will help extinguish the fire.
Once the equipment is installed, which could take several hours of welding, the isolated section of the pipeline will be purged with nitrogen, which will extinguish the fire, company and local officials said. After that, damaged components can be repaired.
“The safest way to manage this process is to let the products burn off,†Energy Transfer said.
Late Wednesday afternoon, Deer Park officials said repair work on the pipeline to help speed up the process to put out the fire wasn’t expected to be completed until 6 p.m. on Thursday. Once finished, the fire was anticipated to be extinguished within two to three hours.
Authorities evacuated nearly 1,000 homes at one point and ordered people in nearby schools to shelter in place. Officials said that starting at 6 p.m. on Wednesday, residents in Deer Park and La Porte who had to evacuate would be allowed to return to their homes. A portion of a highway near the pipeline would remain closed, officials said.
Hundreds of customers lost power. Officials said Wednesday afternoon that only two customers remained without electricity in the Deer Park and La Porte area. Repairs to all of the power distribution lines affected by the fire had been completed.
Deer Park’s statement said Energy Transfer was “prioritizing the safety of the community and environment as it implements its emergency response plan.â€
“We appreciate the patience and understanding of all residents during this ongoing situation,†Deer Park officials said.
By late Tuesday, about 400 evacuees remained, and some expressed frustration over being forced to quickly flee and not being given any timeline for when they will be able to return.
“We literally walked out with the clothes on our backs, the pets, and just left the neighborhood with no idea where we were going,†said Kristina Reff, who lives near the fire. “That was frustrating.â€
Energy Transfer and Harris County officials have said that air quality monitoring shows no immediate risk to individuals, despite the huge tower of billowing flame that shot hundreds of feet into the air, creating thick black smoke that hovered over the area.
Houston is the nation’s petrochemical heartland and is home to a cluster of refineries and plants and thousands of miles of pipelines. Explosions and fires are a familiar sight, and some have been deadly, raising recurring questions about industry efforts to protect the public and the environment.
SMITH COUNTY – Smith County deputies captured a robbery suspect after a motorcycle pursuit Tuesday morning. According to Tyler Police Department Public Information Officer Andy Erbaugh and our news partner KETK, the Smith County Sheriff’s Office was in pursuit of a motorcyclist around 7:30 a.m. Sgt. Larry Christian with the Smith County Sheriff’s Office said the suspect, 34-year-old Charles Griffith, was caught on Pearl Street. Griffith was arrested on an aggravated robbery warrant and charged with evading arrest with a vehicle and manufacture or delivery of a controlled substance. He is being held on a combined bond of $1,850,000 at the Smith County Jail.
DEER PARK (AP) — A flame that towered over a southeast Houston suburb had subsided Tuesday, but continued to burn following a massive pipeline explosion after a vehicle drove through a fence and struck an above-ground valve, officials said.
“Progress has been made as first responder crews worked through the night. The fire is significantly smaller,†according to a statement from the city of Deer Park.
City officials have said investigations by police and local FBI agents have found no preliminary reports that would suggest a coordinated or “terrorist†attack and that “this appears to be an isolated incident.â€
The investigation included efforts to learn more about the driver of a vehicle that was incinerated by the pipeline explosion as flames scorched the ground across a wide radius, severed adjacent power transmission lines and ignited homes at a distance.
Police did not provide any information about the person’s condition.
An evacuation area included nearly 1,000 homes and initial shelter orders included schools.
The City of La Porte said it has slightly reduced the evacuation area south of the pipeline fire, but did not say how many people were affected.
Operators shut off the flow of natural gas liquids in the pipeline, but so much remained in the miles of tubing that firefighters could do nothing but watch and hose down adjacent homes.
The statement by Deer Park said Energy Transfer, the Dallas-based owner of the pipeline, expects the fire to burn itself out later Tuesday.
Deer Park Mayor Jerry Mouton Jr. described intense heat from the fire that has continued burning for nearly 24 hours as ladder trucks showered houses from above.
Firefighters initially were dispatched Monday morning, after an explosion at a valve station in Deer Park, adjacent to La Porte, rattled homes and businesses, including a Walmart. Deer Park officials said an SUV drove into the valve after going through a fence on the side of the Walmart parking lot.
Deer Park spokesperson Kaitlyn Bluejacket has said four people were injured. She didn’t provide details about the severity of the injuries.
Harris County Judge Lina Hidalgo said in a statement that 20 miles (32 kilometers) of pipeline between the two closed valves had to burn off before the fire would stop.
Anna Lewis, who was walking into the nearby Walmart when the explosion happened, said it sounded “like a bomb went off.†She said everyone inside was rushed to the back of the store and then taken across the street to a grocery store before being bussed to a community center.
“It scared me,†she said. “You really don’t know what to do when it’s happening.â€
Geselle Melina Guerra said she and her boyfriend heard the explosion as they were having breakfast in their mobile home.
“All of a sudden we hear this loud bang and then I see something bright, like orange, coming from our back door that’s outside,†said Guerra, who lives within the evacuation area.
Houston, Texas’ largest city, is the nation’s petrochemical heartland and is home to a cluster of refineries and plants and thousands of miles of pipelines. Explosions and fires are a familiar sight in the area, including some that have been deadly, raising recurring questions about the adequacy of industry efforts to protect the public and the environment.
Both Energy Transfer and Harris County Pollution Control are conducting air monitoring in the area and have found no health issues, according to Bluejacket, the Deer Park spokesperson, from the towering plume of fire and smoke that could be seen from at least 10 miles (16 kilometers) away at one point.
The Railroad Commission of Texas, which regulates oil and gas in the state, said its safety inspectors were investigating.
TYLER – With political campaign season in full swing, the Texas Department of Transportation advises political parties, candidates, and their supporters of where campaign signs can be placed along Texas roadways, according to a news release.
“We want to remind everyone that TxDOT has guidelines regarding placing signs in the right of way,” said Jeff Williford, public information officer for the Tyler District. “We know that a lot of signs will start showing up as we get closer to election day, but if a political sign is placed in the right of way, we are required to remove it without notice.” Read the rest of this entry »
AUSTIN (AP) – Aspiring Texas psychologists hope to earn certification and start work faster under a new licensing examination that would be created by the state. The plan, which is catching the eye of other states, calls for Texas boards to conduct state certification tests, eliminating the need for more expensive and time-intensive national certification tests.
This year, the Texas State Board of Examiners of Psychologists moved to begin researching the cost of a cheaper state exam instead of requiring applicants to take a new $450 “skills†test offered by the Association of State and Provincial Psychology Boards.
Sarah Lorenz, a licensed professional counselor in Texas, told the state board last month that Texas is facing a severe shortage of mental health providers and dropping an additional test will not do enough to help.
“We need to fix this provider shortage crisis,†Lorenz said, suggesting that the state might even need to lower the threshold for a passing score to get more people into the profession.
The health care industry overall is facing an issue with licensing as various studies have found the length and expense of certification have adverse consequences.
Psychologist applicants already take a required $800 knowledge exam from the national board. The national board approved the new skills exam in 2016, but it notified states last October that the skills exam would now be required to complete certification by the national body.
This additional skills test was designed to weed out applicants who lacked the skills to work in a clinical setting. However, the licensing board for Texas views this step as unnecessary.
“Show me the unqualified people, this avalanche of unqualified people entering the field, because that is not the case,†said John Bielamowicz, the presiding member of the state psychologists’ licensing board.
Texas is the first licensing board in the nation to consider an alternative to the national exam.
“We would prefer to keep things exactly as they are, but that’s not an option anymore,†said Bielamowicz, adding, “We didn’t have to do this. We don’t want to do this. And there is certainly a downside to it, but we have to do something.â€
Currently, Texas licensed psychologists must have a doctoral degree and pass three exams: the $800 knowledge exam by the national testing board, a $210 jurisprudence test, and a $320 oral exam. This is in addition to the $340 a prospective psychologist must pay to do the required 3,500 hours of supervised work. Now the national testing agency wants to add a $450 skills test.
Any failure requires a candidate to retake an exam and pay the price again. A number of mental health providers testified to the board that they have spent thousands of dollars trying to pass the current knowledge exam, and said that adding anything else can be costly.
“Our legislators gave us a directive after Uvalde to reduce or eliminate unnecessary barriers and streamline the process to get more people into the mental health profession,†Bielamowicz said. “Adopting another test is the opposite of this.â€
Bielamowicz said the relationship between the state’s licensing board and the national board – ASPPB – has degraded to a point where he can’t see it being mended.
“ASPPB has, with the benefit of hindsight, deliberately and strategically run the clock on us for maximum advantage,†Bielamowicz said. “They turned the screws on us and other states and put us in an impossible position. There has been so much trust broken.â€
The Texas Behavioral Health Executive Council this summer sent a letter to the Federal Trade Commission saying the national board has violated federal antitrust laws by updating the Examination for Professional Practice in Psychology to include a second skills test that will go into effect in 2026 without approval and input from the states.
The national board has denied these claims and stated that the allegations against it ignore the long development history and justifications behind the additional test, which is consistent with every other doctoral-level health service licensure examination in the United States and misunderstands antitrust law principles.
The new version of the Examination for Professional Practice in Psychology test “is not a pretextual effort to drive revenue,†the national board said in a statement. “The development of the Part 2-Skills component of the EPPP is the result of a nearly 15-year, member-driven effort to ensure that the EPPP continues to effectively measure entry-level competence through the inclusion of skill-based assessment.â€
However, organizations like the Oklahoma Psychological Association are also starting to join the fight against the national board’s additional test requirements.
“As advocates for psychology as a science and profession in Oklahoma, we believe the EPPP Part 2 for licensure would serve as a detriment and a deterrent to mental health services,†Joseph James, president of the Oklahoma Psychological Association, said in a statement.
James said the financial burden on trainees and the need for more research on an additional test should make states hesitant to accept this requirement.
“We have spoken with representatives from boards across the country and found that we are not alone in our concerns,†James said.
Bielamowicz confirmed that Oklahoma representatives have contacted Texas colleagues about their effort to create a new test and that he has been encouraged by some of what he has heard from other states about the latest test requirements. He said he plans to discuss their plans at their board meeting on Thursday.
“This issue has really united states that don’t necessarily have similar politics,†Bielamowicz said, mentioning he has heard public comments in New York against the additional test. “There’s a lot of passionate opinions that this is not the right course for a lot of states, not just Texas.â€
Chanelle Batiste, a mental health provider in Louisiana and a representative of an equity advocacy group called Radical Psychologists, told the state licensing board last month that they are encouraging other states to take Texas’s steps.
“The damage that part two will do to getting a license needs to be discussed,†she said.
Bielamowicz said this potential collaboration between states is crucial.
“While Texas is leading the way,†he said, “Nothing about this effort says this is the Texas test, and it’s ours, and no one can have it. We have had a lot of conversations with state boards and leaders who are running training programs at various universities, who have shown a lot of interest in participating across state lines on what this test would look like and what would be on it.â€
Bielamowicz said Texas’s creation of its test will come with a series of challenges that need to be addressed, including reciprocity and interstate portability.
“Those are solvable problems, so I’m not afraid of solving them,†he said, “but it certainly introduces some things we’ll have to tackle.â€
The price tag for creating a test is also a hurdle, but Bielamowicz is confident lawmakers will provide what is needed if asked. He said he expects to tell lawmakers the situation for the first time during a Senate committee hearing for Health and Human Services.
“It will be legislators’ prerogative to tell us to stand down,†he said. “If they don’t think that we should do this, then they’re not going to fund it.â€
LINDALE — US 69 in Lindale has reopened following an early Thursday morning wreck involving an 18-wheeler carrying 8,000 gallons and a white pickup truck. According to our news partner KETK, the wreck occurred at around 6:30 a.m. causing nearly 5,000 gallons to be spilled. The driver and passenger of the white pickup truck were extracted.
“It was noted that this extrication was an extremely difficult one due to the nature of how the vehicles collided. Both occupants were extricated from the vehicle and transported to the hospital,†the Lindale Fire Department said. Read the rest of this entry »
PALESTINE (AP) — Texas’s highest criminal court on Wednesday declined to stop the execution next month of Robert Roberson, who was sentenced to death in 2003 for killing his 2-year-old daughter, but who has consistently challenged his conviction on the claim that it was based on questionable science.
Without reviewing the merits of Roberson’s claims, the Texas Court of Criminal Appeals on Wednesday dismissed both a motion to halt the execution and a new application for relief filed by his attorneys. That leaves Roberson’s execution on track for Oct. 17, unless he can win clemency from the state’s Board of Pardons and Paroles. Read the rest of this entry »
UVALDE (AP) – U.S. Border Patrol agents who rushed to the school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, in 2022 failed to establish command and had inadequate training to confront what became one of the nation’s deadliest classroom attacks, according to a federal report released Thursday. But investigators concluded the agents did not violate rules and no disciplinary action was recommended.
The roughly 200-page report from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection’s Office of Professional Responsibility does not assign overarching blame for the hesitant police response at Robb Elementary School, where a teenage gunman with an AR-style rifle killed 19 students and two teachers inside a fourth-grade classroom. Nearly 200 U.S. Customs and Border Protection officers were involved in the response, more than any other law enforcement agency.
The gunman was inside the classroom for more than 70 minutes before a tactical team, led by Border Patrol, went inside and killed the shooter.
Much of the report — which the agency says was initiated to “provide transparency and accountability†— retells the chaos, confusion and numerous police missteps that other scathing government reports have already laid bare. Some victims’ family members bristled over federal investigators identifying no one deserving of discipline.
“The failure of arriving law enforcement personnel to establish identifiable incident management or command and control protocols led to a disorganized response to the Robb Elementary School shooting,†the report stated. “No law enforcement official ever clearly established command at the school during the incident, leading to delays, inaction, and potentially further loss of life.â€
Customs and Border Protection said in a statement that investigators “concluded none of the CBP personnel operating at the scene were found to have violated any rule, regulation, or law, and no CBP personnel were referred for disciplinary action.”
Families of the victims have long sought accountability for the slow law enforcement response.
Jesse Rizo, whose niece Jacklyn Cazares was one of the students killed, said that while he hadn’t seen the report, he was briefed by family members and was disappointed to hear that it held no one accountable.
“We’ve expected certain outcomes after these investigations, and it’s been letdown after letdown,†said Rizo, a member of Uvalde’s school board.
Federal officials said the report aimed to determine if agents complied with relevant rules and laws, and if anything could improve their performance in the future.
The report catalogs an array of breakdowns and paints a scene of disorder.
One Border Patrol agent said he couldn’t determine who was in command because there were so many agencies. Another agent told investigators he was working an overtime shift when he rushed to the school and was allegedly told by a state trooper, “The chief is in the room with the guy.†He said that led him to believe it was a standoff, so he began directing traffic.
Some Border Patrol agents drove more than 70 miles (113 kilometers) to the school, which is located near the U.S-Mexico border. One agent told investigators the scene looked “like a Hollywood movie with all the lights and chaos.†Another supervisor said he looked for a command post but no one knew where it was.
According to messages between agents in the Border Patrol’s tactical unit, one agent wrote at 11:44 a.m., “Get everyone to Robb school in Uvalde. There’s a possble/shooting guy with AK/AR.†A minute later, an agent sends a message: “Barricaded subject is what their calling it.â€
Among the findings in the report was that agents’ active shooter training had not addressed dealing with a shooter behind a locked door or assessing medical needs.
Nearly 400 local, state and federal officers responded, including over 90 state police officials. Multiple federal and state investigations have laid bare cascading problems in law enforcement training, communication, leadership and technology, and questioned whether officers prioritized their own lives over those of children and teachers.
Two of the responding officers now face criminal charges. Former Uvalde school Police Chief Pete Arredondo and former school officer Adrian Gonzales have pleaded not guilty to multiple charges of child abandonment and endangerment. Last week, Arredondo asked a judge to throw out the indictment. He has said he should not have been considered the incident commander and has been “scapegoated†into shouldering the blame for law enforcement failures that day.
Last month, the city released a massive collection of audio and video recording from the day of the shooting, including 911 calls from students inside the classroom. On Wednesday, Uvalde police said an employee was put on paid leave after the department discovered additional video that has not yet been made public. The city has not said what the video shows.