Post by abbey1227 on Jun 8, 2022 2:19:40 GMT
INSIDER
Texas teacher whose 11 students were killed says active shooting training set the children up 'like ducks' for the shooter
jepstein@insider.com (Jake Epstein) - 12h ago
A Uvalde teacher said active shooter training set children up "like ducks" for the gunman.
Arnulfo Reyes told Good Morning America that he had his kids hide under a table before the massacre.
The shooter killed 11 of his students, as well as another 8 children and two adults.
"It all happened too fast. Training, no training, all kinds of training — nothing gets you ready for this," Arnulfo Reyes told Good Morning America in an emotional interview that aired on Tuesday.
Reyes was teaching his fourth-grade class in room 111 at Robb Elementary School on the day a gunman burst into the school, and massacred 19 children and two adults.
He said his students were watching a movie after an end-of-year celebration when they heard gunshots. Reyes says he told the children to hide under the table and act like they were asleep. But the gunman burst into the room and opened fire, shooting Reyes twice and killing all of his students.
The Texas shooting happened just 10 days after a gunman opened fire at a supermarket in Buffalo, New York, killing 10 in what authorities are calling "a racially motivated hate crime."
The US has had 214 mass shootings so far in 2022, according to the Gun Violence Archive, a nonprofit that tracks shootings in the US.
As shootings like these continue in the US, so do questions about gun control. Americans who fear their town or city could be the site of the next attack wonder what strategies the US could take to reduce gun violence.
"We trained our kids to sit under the table, and that's what I thought at the time. But we set them up to be like ducks," a visibly upset Reyes said. "You can give us all the training you want, but laws have to change."
He said he "tried his best" with what he was told to do, and tearfully apologized to the families of his students.
Reyes told GMA that he felt "absolutely" abandoned by police that day and said there's "no excuse for their actions."
Texas officials have come under intense criticism for the way the shooting unfolded, and how they have handled the aftermath — making over a dozen changes to the timeline of the massacre.
Police officers were at the scene within minutes of the school shooting but delayed over an hour before confronting the gunman in a school classroom. Texas law enforcement has deflected blame to the school police chief, who allegedly wouldn't send in officers because he thought kids weren't in danger anymore.
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