Two years later, Uvalde searches for peace

UVALDE (Nexstar) — Two million dollars is hollow penance to Javier Cazares. Two years ago, his 9-year-old daughter Jackie was attending an award ceremony and counting the days until summer break. She would soon die on the way to the hospital after law enforcement void of urgency left her bleeding on the classroom floor. Two years later, two million is too little, too late.

On May 24, 2022, an 18-year-old with a rifle ended Jackie’s dreams and stopped the clock on a town still trying to find its way forward. But the message from the families this week was focused on the surrounding failures, which they say occurred long before and after the gunman fired.

“We’re tired. Of course, they could do a lot more. But I can’t emphasize this enough: It’s not about the money,” Javier said this Tuesday after the families announced their settlement with the city. “We can never be 100% satisfied. I mean, we don’t have a daughter here… How can we move forward? Or heal correctly?”

That’s the question hanging over the entire Uvalde community. There’s a tension in the town nowadays — between the past and future, between the families’ relentless fight for accountability and their neighbors who would prefer everything go back to normal.

Normalcy not an option. It will take generations for Uvalde to dull the pain left on May 24. But for the small town of 15,000, some are growing irritated with the constant lawsuits and publicity.

“It’s churning up a slight division or resentment in the community by those who initially showed support but might be getting weary of having their town synonymous with a mass shooting,” the families’ attorney Josh Koskoff said. “It’s just a casualty of this mass shooting epidemic we have that transforms towns like Uvalde into pariahs.”

Uvalde is hoping for a more positive transformation. The Uvalde CISD Moving Forward Foundation is championing the efforts to build a brand new, state-of-the-art school for the next generation of children. They broke ground in February and hope to complete construction by fall 2025.

“It’s big for our town. It’s something that we know we probably wouldn’t have gotten without the tragedy, but now, hopefully, this will be able to serve our children and our community for the next 75, 100 years,” Uvalde Justice of the Peace Lalo Diaz said. “It’s not just a cookie cutter school… this design is ours. It was brought up by Uvalde individuals for our children, so hopefully it is something that we can be proud of.”

The foundation is relying on mostly private donations to fund the construction. They have received $10 million from H-E-B and $15 million from the state, the foundation’s executive director, Tim Miller, said. But it’s a $60 million project, and they are still $20 million short. The foundation accepts donations here.

The school will serve the future, but do little for the families forever stuck in May 24, 2022. For them, it’s still early in their path toward peace. The next step involves a major lawsuit against all 92 Texas DPS officers who responded to Robb Elementary that day. Of the nearly 400 law enforcement officers on the scene, DPS accounted for about a quarter of them. The families are seeking accountability for the failures of communication, leadership and urgency that they believe cost some of their children their lives.

“It’s hard. It’s difficult. All we can do is hope to do the right thing,” Cazares said. “It became my life’s mission that day.”