Lori Falce: Uvalde settlement is offensively inadequate
May 24—The City of Uvalde, Texas settled a lawsuit with the families of 17 children killed and two who were wounded in the 2022 massacre of Robb Elementary School.
The city is paying out $2 million.
That may sound like a large number. In some cases, it might be. In this, it is so small as to be offensive.
The settlement is divided over the lives of fourth graders ranging in age from 9 to 11. The horror of the school shooting unfolded over 80 minutes from the time the first shots were fired until the gunman was killed. The most gut-wrenching detail was how parents were asked for DNA samples to identify the ruined bodies of their children.
Those children had been looking forward to summer vacation just two days away. Instead, their lives ended in terror and pools of blood.
The settlement says those lives are worth about $117,647 apiece. Lives that had barely started were given a price tag less than half the cost of the cheapest houses on the market right now in Uvalde.
The families say they settled rather than seeing the city bankrupted. The city does not deserve that level of grace and understanding.
There were 376 law enforcement officers from various agencies on site outside Robb Elementary when those children and two teachers suffered and died. That included 25 from the Uvalde police department. The police response was woefully inadequate. A gunman in an elementary school needs little time to create havoc. The police gave him more than enough.
That delay offends me not just as a mother, but as someone who remembers the way police responded to the Pittsburgh synagogue shooting.
What is more valuable in the settlement is a requirement that the officers be better trained. That isn't something that should have been necessary to spell out in the agreement. That is something the police officers should have demanded — something to hold off the images of dead children doubtlessly haunting their dreams.
The insultingly small settlement is far less than the cost of one child's life, much less 19 and two teachers. But other lawsuits are in play. The state, the school district and others will have to answer for their failures — deficits outlined in a federal Department of Justice report issued in January. Federal agencies also fell down on the job and won't be let off the hook.
The City of Uvalde's settlement is a start — a pathetic, low-balled, bottom-of-the-barrel beginning at atonement for incompetence. But there is a lot of opportunity for other agencies, politicians and individuals to beg for forgiveness and try to make amends.
And every other city, law enforcement agency, state and politician should take notes. As long as mass shootings are an unchecked issue in America, the Uvalde settlement won't be the last meaningless financial gesture.
Lori Falce is the Tribune-Review community engagement editor and an opinion columnist. For more than 30 years, she has covered Pennsylvania politics, Penn State, crime and communities. She joined the Trib in 2018. She can be reached at lfalce@triblive.com.
