In Texas, the principal of Robb Elementary School in Uvalde has been placed on administrative leave.
An attorney for Mandy Gutierrez is not commenting on why she is on administrative leave. This comes after a legislative committee blamed Gutierrez and an assistant for not fixing a lock to the classroom where 19 students and two teachers were killed.
Police in Uvalde are also taking a lot of heat over their slow response to the school shooting. It's prompting law enforcement agencies around the country to better prepare.
The Waukesha County Sheriff’s Department does regular active shooter training. They invited the media to be part of a training session on Tuesday.
Hearing fake gunshots and shouts of first responders made it feel very real.
“We ask everyone to stay down and put their hands up,” said Waukesha County Sheriff’s Deputy Patrick Maylen. “At that point, we still need to determine who and where the shooter is. As we pass people, we ask for a description of the shooter. We are scanning and attending to those who are injured.”
We watched as they located the shooter, checked on victims, and got survivors out of Blair Elementary School in Waukesha.
“They make this as realistic as possible,” said Deputy Maylen. “We're not training in a parking lot or in the basement of our department. We're finding actual venues. We're training in classrooms and schools. We’re learning the layout of these locations. That helps us prepare.”
The Waukesha County Sheriff's Department says it's been getting more questions and concerns from parents and citizens about how prepared they are for school shootings and other potential tragedies. That's why they're providing an inside look at their training.
Deputy Maylen says it's this kind of practice that better prepared him to respond to the Waukesha Christmas Parade attack last November.
“All this stuff relates back to that incident, and I think we were all trained for that day,” said Deputy Maylen. “It builds our confidence in handling those very tough emergency situations when emotions are high. There is a mental component to this work. We’d all rather be the ones who get hurt than have a child hurt.”
There is another component to the department’s active shooter training. All sworn staff are required to review the footage of what happened in Uvalde, Texas, and discuss it.
The Waukesha County Sheriff’s Department also recently got more protective gear, including door breaching equipment to open locked doors.
