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A tale of two sides | Uvalde CISD superintendent garners supporters and backlash after retirement announcement

Hal Harrell drew a crowd of supporters at a board meeting, but some families who lost loved ones in the massacre said his departure was needed.

DALLAS — It was almost like there were two Uvaldes on display. 

Outside of the school board meeting was a sentimental sendoff.

Inside there was grief-fueled anger.

“How is it that you all are entitled to get a pass in the most violent school massacre in Texas?” Velma Lisa Duran, one of slain teacher Irma Garcia’s sisters, asked board members.

“You should have been fired or arrested for gross negligence, child endangerment, something.”

A round of applause followed.

So did tears.

Outside, a crowd of Uvalde residents lavished praise on Uvalde's school superintendent.

“This is overwhelming,” Hal Harrell said to the adoring crowd before the meeting began.

“When I walk away from here, I’m going to talk away with all the good memories,” he said, adding that there’s no place he’d rather be than Uvalde.

Harrell joined the district as a teacher in 1992, according to his bio on the district website.

On May 24, a gunman shot and killed 19 students and two teachers inside Uvalde’s Robb Elementary.

More than 370 officers responded to the campus – some within three minutes of the shooting.

But no one entered the classrooms to either take out the shooter or try to save victims’ lives for 77 minutes

Uvalde CISD eventually fired district police chief Pete Arredondo.

Several parents camped outside the district administration headquarters for 10 straight days, demanding the rest of the district’s police force be suspended pending an independent investigation.

During that protest came the revelation that a DPS trooper who’d responded to the school and been put on leave by the state while her actions were investigated was then hired by Uvalde CISD.

Hours after the district suspended the entire force, Harrell announced he was retiring.

Monday, the school board accepted his retirement and announced it was hiring a search firm to begin looking for his replacement.

Several families who lost loved ones expressed deep hurt that a crowd came to support him but not them.

“How dare you decide now that a job is at stake to come together, but you stayed home as we - the families - have been demanding transparency and accountability,” a tearful Kimberly Rubio said at the microphone during Monday night’s board meeting.

“I am disgusted by this community,” she said.

Marissa Lozano, another of Irma Garcia’s sisters, told Harrell living long enough to retire is an “absolute blessing.”

“Irma will never get that chance,” she said.

“You have a lot of supporters, good for you,” she told him. “Regardless if you’re a good man or how many teachers you know by name, the fact remains you failed to protect Irma, Eva [Mirales] and those 19 babies.  Your poor judgement and leadership cost people their lives.”

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