Putting up taller barbed fences and more police officers patrolling the school are just some of the many measures the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District has taken to ensure the safety of their students when they returned to campus on Sept. 7 for the start of a new school year.

Teachers and students around the state, including here in Melissa, wore maroon and white on Sept. 7 to show love and support for this community.

On Tuesday, May 24, 2022, tragedy struck in the form of a school shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, and 21 individuals were killed–19 students and two teachers–plus the active shooter himself. This day will be forever remembered by the many parents of victims in the incident as a day of loss and grief.

The shooter Salvador Ramos ended up being killed by a father of one of the students.

According to the Texas Tribune, in the aftermath of the school shooting, one parent named Heather Raley said her conversation with her 7-year-old son Jacob will include acknowledgment that the world is not as simple as black and white.

“I’m not going to say a bad guy just came in and did bad things, that’s too simple,” Raley said. “The next generation that’s coming up needs to know more about mental instability. And so we do talk to him, like, no, this person is mentally unwell. In their head, they thought this was OK, but it’s not OK. And it hurt a lot of people.”

The school has increased safety measures to ensure that an incident like this will not happen again, although, whether or not the environment will be healthy for the students’ mental health is questionable. Robb Elementary School has been permanently closed. Students will either attend Dalton Elementary this year or the newly formed Uvalde Elementary School. Parents can also opt for remote learning for their children with a district-provided tablet.