The Texas Department of Public Safety says it's launched an investigation in response to footage showing an officer violently removing the mother of a Uvalde school shooting victim from her son's elementary school. Ana Rodriguez arrived at Uvalde's Flores Elementary School on Wednesday to check her son out of class for National School Walkout Day, per KSAT. Students around the country walked out of class to protest gun violence. But Flores Elementary said students could only gather within the school. Parents said students faced possible suspension if they left school grounds, which is why Rodriguez came with permission for her son to leave.
"I have my ID and I’m gonna get my son out," the mother of Robb Elementary shooting victim Maite Rodriguez said in the footage. As KSAT reports, she was "immediately confronted by a DPS trooper," who grabbed Rodriguez and forced her out the door. Reporter Leigh Waldman tweeted that it was "the second time she was pushed out of the school." "I've already told her, she's going to be under arrest if she continues," said the trooper. He eventully let Rodriguez into the school but was shown arguing with her inside.
Rodriguez exited the building with her son within minutes. "When your daughter is murdered on school grounds, then you talk to me, sir!" she shouted as she left. She recently spoke of the "excruciatingly painful" loss of 10-year-old Maite, whom she described as "my best friend." State Sen. Roland Gutierrez later demanded an investigation into Wednesday's altercation, which added physical bruises to Rodriguez's less-visible pain. "The way that these grieving parents have been treated by the people that failed them is totally unfair," Gutierrez said in a statement, per KSAT. DPS has confirmed an investigation is underway, KXAN reports. (More Uvalde mass shooting stories.)
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