Uvalde, Texas
CNN
—
Hal Harrell, superintendent of the Uvalde Consolidated Unbiased Faculty District, introduced his retirement Monday, in keeping with a Fb publish by his spouse, Donna Goates Harrell.
“I’m really grateful to your help and properly needs. My determination to retire has not been made evenly and was made after a lot prayer and discernment,” the publish learn. “My spouse and I like you all and this neighborhood that we each grew up in, and subsequently the choice was a tough one for us.”
Harrell has been beneath scrutiny for the reason that Might 24 slaughter at Robb Elementary Faculty in Texas.
Harrell will stay all year long till a brand new superintendent is called, the publish stated. The college board was holding a gathering Monday night time.
Earlier than the assembly Harrell was greeted and hugged by a throng of individuals. He responded to CNN questions by saying, “I feel I’m going to take pleasure in this proper now, thanks.” When pressed additional by CNN, Harrell stated, “I’m going to go to (with individuals).”
Throughout the assembly the board went into closed session. In line with a gathering agenda a part of the closed session was for an “lawyer session concerning authorized points associated to Superintendent retirement and transition.”
Board members have been then slated to renew the general public a part of the assembly and “take attainable motion concerning Superintendent retirement,” it added.
The bloodbath left 19 kids and two academics lifeless. Months later, new particulars are nonetheless rising in regards to the college district’s response to the taking pictures.
“My coronary heart was damaged on Might twenty fourth and I’ll at all times pray for every treasured life that was tragically taken in addition to their households,” the Fb publish stated.
In line with the publish, the superintendent requested his spouse “to publish this message since he doesn’t have Fb.”
Final week, Harrell emailed employees about his intention to retire.
“I’m in my thirty first yr in training, all served and devoted to the scholars and households right here in Uvalde,” Harrell wrote.
That message got here hours after the college district introduced it was suspending operations of its police pressure and putting a lieutenant and one other prime college official on depart as a part of its investigation.
The e-mail additionally got here after CNN reported the Uvalde college district had lately employed Crimson Elizondo, a former Texas Division of Public Security trooper beneath investigation for her response to the bloodbath.
Elizondo arrived minutes after the taking pictures began and was heard on body-worn digital camera video saying she would have responded in a different way had her personal son been inside the college.
“If my son had been in there, I’d not have been exterior,” she advised one other officer. “I promise you that.”
The college district apologized to the victims’ households and the Uvalde neighborhood “for the ache that this revelation has prompted,” the district stated final week. “Ms. Elizondo’s assertion within the audio is just not in step with the District’s expectations.”
Elizondo has been fired from the college district and declined to talk with CNN.
Whereas Harrell introduced a sequence of latest security measures for this college yr, some Uvalde mother and father have known as for the superintendent’s elimination for months.
