Texas DPS says teacher closed propped-open door before attack but it was not locked

[Quixote1818]

Source: ABC News

The Texas Department of Public Safety is correcting previous comments it made stating that a teacher had left a door propped open that the Uvalde gunman used to enter the school prior to the shooting.

Texas Department of Public Safety press secretary Ericka Miller confirmed to ABC News that investigators have now determined that the teacher closed the door but that the door did not lock. Law enforcement is looking into why the door did not lock, DPS confirmed to ABC News.

The clarification comes just days after Steven McCraw, director of the Texas Department of Public Safety, said the teacher left the door propped open prior to the gunman entering the school.

"The teacher runs to the room, 132, to retrieve a phone, and that same teacher walks back to the exit door and the door remains propped open," McCraw said at a press conference last Friday.



Read more: https://abcnews.go.com/US/texas-dps-teacher-closed-propped-open-door-attack/story?id=85097132&cid=social_fb_abcn&fbclid=IwAR2v7LZhk7ydhHxt_Q9tELAu09NA6u6p9RD_6vAyQW2kQQW8n0IjMAxzq3A

[NBachers]

1. One bloody lie after another to save their own pathetic asses.

[Magoo48]

13. Possibly one of the most massive, and futile, cases of attempted post-event ass covering ever.

It’s just so damn sad and cowardly.

[area51]

15. +1 n/t

[Evolve Dammit]

2. Doors being propped open (understandable in "normal" times) will be used as "need to harden"

argument. We are rapidly devolving into the 1880's but with modern weaponry. 30% of this country is a bunch of rabid, knuckle-dragging tongue chewers who enjoy debasing others and are totally okey dokey with killing anyone. If I was a tourist, I would avoid USA like the plague. Oh wait, we have that too! Silly me.

[crimycarny]

3. I know, right??

I can’t believe the narrative in the media is about doors open or not open, locked or unlocked. Once again the GOP successfully changes the narrative and gets everyone talking about something ridiculous like doors versus GUNS.

I’m pretty sure an AR-15 could shoot through a door lock like butter. I also don’t think the shooter would have been deterred by a locked door. What’s next, “Only authorized personnel can enter” signs missing?

But, as always, the media takes the bait.

[Evolve Dammit]

4. Takes the bait is right. The insanity is on full display and they insist on catering to GOP.

[groundloop]

5. And in other news, an 18 year old LEGALLY bought military weapons and killed 21 people.

SQUIRREL !!!!!!

[IronLionZion]

6. Right, forget the guns. Just lock the kids inside

and then wait for headlines on what happens in a fire or similar emergency. Idiots. A mass shooting is also a time when kids would want to escape the building.

[Turbineguy]

7. Better to build hard defenses

than waste the money on education.

[LetMyPeopleVote]

8. Uvalde Teacher's Lawyer Contradicts Police Over Key Piece Of Evidence in Robb Elementary Massacre

The attempt to blame the teacher is bullshit

Link to tweet

https://hillreporter.com/uvalde-teachers-lawyer-contradicts-police-over-key-piece-of-evidence-in-robb-elementary-massacre-132653

News reports have been citing as fact the Uvalde Police claims that the teenage shooter entered the classroom at Robb Elementary School through a door that was left propped open by a school teacher.

But according to the San Antonio Express-News, the teacher’s lawyer says she closed the door shut after she was informed an active shooter was on the loose.

The teenager killed 19 children and two teachers with an assault weapon he was able to obtain legally and easily as soon as he turned 18. He was also apparently allowed to pay off the AR-15 he used on a payment plan. The teacher, who remains unidentified, called 911 to report an accident near the school involving a black truck, which later turned out to belong to the gunman, who had also shot his grandmother, said the teacher’s lawyer, Don Flanary. He added that the teacher propped open the door around the time the gunman crashed his truck, and that the teacher also called 911, but said he wants to make clear that the door was not left propped open and the teacher is not to blame for the shooter’s access to the building.

“She saw the wreck,” Flanary said. “She ran back inside to get her phone to report the accident. She came back out while on the phone with 911. The men at the funeral home yelled, ‘He has a gun!’ She saw him jump the fence, and he had a gun so she ran back inside. She kicked the rock away when she went back in. She remembers pulling the door closed while telling 911 that he was shooting. She thought the door would lock because that door is always supposed to be locked.” Security video confirms the teacher removed the rock holding the door open and closed it.

[BigmanPigman]

9. As a teacher who was a union rep at my site,

I hope her union picks up the lawyer's fees. Teachers make poverty wages as it is. This poor teacher has had to face the emotional aftermath of this horric event but being accused falsely and used as a scape goat is beyond inexusable. I hope she sues those who falsely accused her, all of them.

[Novara]

14. Not only did they blame the teacher ...

... they made it sound frivolous that she went outside for her phone. She went outside for her phone because she was calling 911 about the shooter.

In every step of the way that police force utterly failed. And to make their failure worse they lied repeatedly, blamed teachers, and did everything BUT take responsibility. Now they're no longer cooperating with the investigation.

Their utter failure left 21 people dead, 19 of them children. There needs to be accountability and severe punishment.

[Bluejeans]

10. If the Texas Dept of Public Safety told me the sun rises in the east every morning...

...I'd stand outside facing east with a compass tomorrow morning to verify their claim.

Their story on the Uvalde massacre keeps changing; no rhyme or reason, just chances.

[usaf-vet]

11. i worked in public schools for nearly 25 years. Just a point about closed door and locked doors.

I have no idea what hardware was on the door in question. But if it was a typical push bar to open. Then to actually LOCK that type of door it takes a special "key" to lock the push bar and hence the door.

So IMO it is possible for the teacher to close the door [remove the rock (?)] but not be able to lock the door without the "special key".

Just a thought!

[BigmanPigman]

12. I've been thinking about this too since

I taught K-6 for almost 20 years and I have had issues with the locking doors. My classrooms had both types of doors, both the push bar and a knob and both had to be locked and unlocked with a key which the teacher has. The doors lock from the outside! What made me nervous was the possibility of the shooter being outside of my classroom door and could shoot me when I went out to lock it with my key.

The class which the murderer entered had a door that locked from the inside. This allowed him to lock it and barricade himself with the kids. Now I don't know which way is safest.

[Slammer]

17. The doors

My wife worked in TX public schools for 25+ years.

The only kind of door I've seen, no matter how old the building happens to be, is the push bar door.

And the reason that teachers have to prop them open is that they close and lock automatically unless someone in the administration uses their key to make it stop locking automatically. And that's not done, even during summer break before school starts when teachers are the only ones in the building and they're having to move carloads of boxes in and out through the doors.

I know personally because I've broken my back moving boxes in and out through those kinds of doors for 25+ years.

After school starts to move boxes through a door, you need a two-person team: one to bring the boxes to the door and a person on the inside to open the door. Because the door shouldn't be propped open if there's not a teacher standing there to knock the prop away.

[usaf-vet]

18. That is exactly my point #11 above. Either the door is lock because you have a key or it is not.

Someone with a key had to have unlocked the push bar. IF THEY SAY A TEACHER MOVED THE OBJECT holding the door open THEN when it swung shut it should have locked

In the schools I've worked in the key holder would have been an administrator or a janitor.

[Permanut]

16. Okay, so we're going with the "blame the teacher" strategy..

Got it.

The "good guys with guns" thing didn't work.

The "mental health issues" ploy didn't hold up.