Family members of those slain at Robb Elementary School as well as community members leveled harsh criticism toward Uvalde CISD School Superintendent Dr. Hal Harrell and the panel of elected school board members earlier this evening at the John Harrell Auditorium during tonight’s school board meeting.

  Jesus Rios was one of the first to speak at the podium. “When you decided to run for school board, you took an oath.  At one point or another, we’re going to have to decide if we are going to hold them accountable.  At one point or another, you may be asked to resign, Mr. Harrell. How is Mr. Arredondo still with this program?  Rios asked.

  “We were failed by Pete Arredondo, By keeping him on your staff, you are failing us.” Brett Cross said.

   Next was a speaker named Brenda. “You do everything you want to make us happy. It’s not going to work. We want accountability.”

   She went on to say, “We all know this was handled wrong. We’re here because we have to speak for our children. Make these people accountable!”

  The 16 year old surviving daughter of Irma Garca, Liliana Garcia who also lost her father, Joe Garcia to a heart attack just days after her mother was slain at Robb Elementary School.

  “She went above and beyond, 23 years as an educator. She protected all of her students with her last breath. I needed you there. My mother was murdered.” said Liliana. Liliana spoke about the challenges she faces each day raising her 12 year old sister without her mother and father.  “We were all excited to celebrate their 25 anniversary. It will not take place.:  My mother died protecting her students, but who protected my Mom?”

  Monica Saiz-Martinez , who now resides in Knippa, spoke about growing up next to Robb School. She said. “That day should never have happened.” She said . She also stated Robb School should have had officers there as bail outs which had happened over the past year near the school . In one such bailout, the suspect crashed his car at the same fence as the gunman crashed his truck the day of the shooting.  Saiz-Martinez works at Hillcrest Funeral Home across from Robb School.  “Nobody was there protecting the students.” She said.

“That gate was constantly open.” she said referring to the gate on the fence near the building where the gunman entered the building.

  Living in Knippa, she contrasted Knippa ISD School buildings to Uvalde CISD school buildings.  She said the Knippa schools are hard to get into, She suggested to the Uvalde CISD school board that they need to contact Knippa School ISD administrators and learn how it’s done. She went on to say. Last school year, Uvalde County Sheriff Ruben Nolasco committed his Sheriff’s Office to protecting Knippa ISD schools 24/7.

   Saiz-Martinez concluded her remarks by saying. ” I think prayer should be brought back to school.”

  Following the Open Forum remarks. the school board proceeded onto the next items on the agenda for that evening. including school transportation. the district’s investment activities, student attendance and discipline, along with a long list of business items mostly unrelated to the May 24th Massacre and the Uvalde CISD School Police.

  It was reported that those following the school board meeting on the Live Feed had trouble hearing what was said at the meeting due to the sound being set so low.

Hospital CEO Nordwick Credits STRAC System for Communication and help after Robb School incident.(STRAC :The Southwest Texas Regional Advisory Council)

  In the Uvalde Memorial Hospital board meeting held earlier this evening, the hospital’s CEO, Tom Nordwick described that afternoon as injured patients started arriving from Robb School as, “Organized Chaos.”

   According to Nordwick, the Uvalde Memorial Hospital’s membership with  STRAC. The STRAC system of communication, according to Nordwick, facilitated the streamlining of the hospital’s staff communications. Additionally, nurses from STRAC came to UMH to relieve the nursing staff and assist them. 

  According to Nordwick, Hospital staff cell numbers and email addresses are organized by the STRAC system enabling mass messages to be sent out to staff and groups.

 “We are on standby getting everything ready just watching the staff getting everything ready, “said Nordwick regarding the time just before the first patients started arriving. 

  “Law enforcement showed up as well helping with crowd control… We had clergy come in from outside.” Norwick said.

 “ I had nurses relieving our nurses. They are top-notch.” Adam Apolnar, UMH Chief Operating Officer said.

    According to Apolnar, That day, we had 8 helicopters in line and plenty of ambulances. The staff was extremely compassionate and professional. 

   “We started seeing our first patients at 2 o’clock.  And by 5:30 we were able to close our incident command center.” Nordwick said

 “We saw 15 patients. 11 of them were children. They were transferred the children. 3 of them went to the University Health System, one went to Methodist Children’s Hospital  and then we transferred one adult to BAMC (Brooke Army Medical Center) The 10 remaining, they were able to thoroughly check them out and determine there were no issues that required their continued stay in the hospital. We discharged all the patients that day.” We did have two DOA patients, (Dead On Arrival). And it took a while for us to identify the parents.” said Nordwick

 “Law enforcement showed up as well helping with crowd control,.. We had clergy come in from outside.” Norwick said.

   “The outpouring of support from area nursing homes and other hospitals was amazing.” Nordwick said. He went on to say the press was amazing.

    Apolnar then spoke about the UMH medical staff  working on Irma Garcia’s husband Joe Garcia   Thursday May 28th, who suffered and later died of a heart attack that day.

   “We worked on the heart attack guy for quite some time. We were getting what was needed to bring him back. That night was difficult,” Apolnar said.

    UMH Board Member Kelly Faglie,  described what she saw the afternoon of the school shooting incident  Tuesday afternoon at the hospital. “It was certainly something that was not expected but I felt like everybody did a great job. They got where they needed to be, The only thing was the parking.That was the hard Part. I think those that need to get and need critical care. Everybody just kinda stepped up and did what they  needed to do.”  Faglie went on to say she was very proud of everyone.

According the the STRAC  website: “STRAC or The Southwest Texas Regional Advisory Council (STRAC) is designated by the Texas Department of State Health Services (DSHS) to develop, implement and maintain the regional trauma and emergency healthcare system for the 22 counties in Trauma Service Area – P (TSA-P).”

Under the Heading: Regional Trauma System on the organization’s website it reads, “STRAC is responsible to develop, implement, and maintain the regional trauma and emergency healthcare system plan for TSA-P.  Through collaboration and consensus-driven practices, STRAC and its members determine methods for, and requirements governing, efficient and expedient inter-facility transfers most appropriate for the patient’s needs for trauma care and/or rehabilitative services. This organized approach to facilitating and coordinating a multidisciplinary response to severely injured patients is the focus of Injury Prevention Committee, Trauma Coordinators Committee, and System Process Improvement Committees.”

According to a Kens 5 interview with law enforcement officials 21 were killed in Uvalde connected to the Robb Elementary School Shooting.