Robb Elementary will be demolished, Uvalde mayor says during city council meeting

• Robb Elementary School will be demolished, Uvalde's mayor announced Tuesday.
• Mayor Don McLaughlin said the city wouldn't ask a child or teacher "to go back in that school."

Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas will no longer stand, Mayor Don McLaughlin announced at a heated city council meeting Tuesday evening.

"My understanding — and I had this discussion with the superintendent — that school will be demolished. You can never ask a child to go back or teacher to go back in that school ever," McLaughlin said.

Robb Elementary became the backdrop of the horrific May 24 shooting, during which an 18-year-old gunman left 19 children and two adults dead and injured 17 others.

Officials announced on June 3 during a Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District Board meeting that students and staff will not return to the Robb Elementary campus, Axios reported.

Superintendent Hal Harrell said that Robb Elementary would be turned into "something other than a school site," and that the school would be moved to a new address.

McLaughlin didn't specify where students will attend next school year, or what might be built in place of the school.

The meeting saw public comment from outraged community members over councilmember Pete Arredondo's response to the shooting. Arredondo, who also serves as the school district's police chief, has been widely criticized for deciding to wait more than an hour for backup instead of confronting the shooter, who was later killed by US Border Patrol.

During the meeting, the grandmother of 10-year-old Amerie Jo Garza said she wanted Arredondo removed from his position, which he assumed shortly after the shooting.

"Get him out of our faces and no he does not deserve an administrative leave with pay," she said.

The council voted unanimously to deny him a requested leave of absence, after several victims' family members slammed the embattled chief during public comment.

McLaughlin also used the meeting to quell outrage over his city's response to the shooting, offering a strong rebuke of the police response to the attack and the chaotic handling of the tragedy's aftermath.

"I'm gonna be throwing people under the bus tonight in a speech because for too long, we've been told we can't talk, we can't answer, and we can't say anything. Today that's over with," he said.