Uvalde principal says she’ll second-guess herself ‘for the rest of my life’

The principal of the Uvalde, Texas, elementary school that was the site of a mass shooting in May said Wednesday that she “will second-guess myself for the rest of my life.”

Robb Elementary School principal Mandy Gutierrez was asked during an interview with CNN if she thought she could lose her job.

“I feel that I followed the training that I was provided with to the best of my abilities,” she responded, according to the network.

“And I will second-guess myself for the rest of my life.”

Gutierrez, whose lawyer said earlier this week that she had been placed on paid leave by Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District Superintendent Hal Harrell, defended her handling of the shooting, which left 19 children and two adults dead.

The principal also disputed elements of a Texas House investigative committee report issued earlier this month that “found systemic failures and egregiously poor decision making.” 

She disputed, for example, the finding in the report that there was a “culture of non-compliance with safety policies.”

“Anytime that an alert went out, every single teacher on that campus took it to mean it could be a potential escalating situation. And so everybody follows protocol,” she said.

Gutierrez’s interview comes amid increasing scrutiny over how officials responded to the May 24 school shooting, during which more than an hour passed before law enforcement confronted and fatally shot the gunman.