Uvalde newspaper publisher turned journal entries after Robb Elementary shooting into book about town’s tragedy

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Craig Garnett, owner and publisher of the Uvalde Leader-News, was going about his typical day in the newsroom on May 24, 2022, when the crackling sound of the local police scanner started to mutter about activity at Robb Elementary School. The ringing sounds of multiple sirens soon followed, and by the time Craig heard the whirring of a helicopter, he and the entire newsroom knew something terrible was happening in their city.

Nineteen children and two adults were killed in a shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde that day. It is the deadliest school shooting in Texas history, and the ripple effects led Garnett to start journaling his daily experiences. He has turned those entries into a book called “Uvalde’s Darkest Hour” that chronicles the journey his newspaper and the community navigated while trying to heal and demand accountability.

Garnett spoke with investigative journalist Tony Plohetski about what inspired this book and what the state can learn during a Texas Tribune event Wednesday. Here are five takeaways from his discussion.

Working through it 

Pete Luna, a photographer and circulation manager for the Uvalde Leader-News, made it to Robb Elementary around 30 minutes after learning about something going on in the area. He found a building surrounded by various law enforcement agencies and parents pleading for anyone to go inside and check on their children.

“By the time the photographer got back to the newspaper, I asked him what was happening here, and he just said, ‘Boss, it’s bad,’” Garnett said. “We didn’t have the numbers, but we knew children had been shot.”

This struck remarkably close to home for the newsroom: Reporter Kimberly Mata-Rubio learned her daughter Lexi Rubio was one of the 19 students killed in the mass shooting.

“She went home and wept for a long time, and then she returned,” Garnett said. “Each woman in the newsroom was so courageous. They would work through the tears, keep calling, and keep writing.

Tough decisions 

The Uvalde Leader-News made several tough decisions in the moments after the shooting at Robb Elementary, including only giving 26 photos of the immediate aftermath to trusted organizations. In contrast, the newspaper ran a completely black front page despite national media using its pictures on their websites.

“The reason for this is the images of those kids running from the school. We didn’t want the people in our town whose children didn’t live to see those children still alive running away and compound their pain,” Garnett said.

The newspaper also changed its 70-year tradition of being a twice-weekly publication to providing information online immediately due to the community's needs.

Garnett tasked his newsroom with being aggressive following the shooting, holding public officials accountable, and ensuring local officials were up to leadership tasks in the future.

However, being a community newspaper can be a challenge when tragedy strikes, Garnett said, because the people you are writing about will run into you at the local grocery store or church.

“But that is community journalism,” Garnett said, mentioning he has lost friends during his Robb Elementary School shooting coverage. “You accept that early on, and I think it gave me the ability to be more insightful in writing this book.”

A journal and a journalist 

On the day of the Robb Elementary School shooting, Garnett started typing notes on his iPhone and laptop about the events he witnessed, and he would do this daily for six weeks. He said this was almost therapeutic for him.

“Honestly, I could sit down and go through my thought process about whatever the incidents were,” he said. “It was a helpful process.”

Garnett said it wasn’t until the release of a Texas House investigative report detailing the failures of law enforcement and other officials that he decided he might turn his daily journal into a book.

“I was in the position of being sort of at the heart of the tragedy, and that was the perspective I wanted to bring to the book,” he said.

A complicated divide 

Former Uvalde schools police Chief Pete Arredondo and former school officer Adrian Gonzales were indicted by a grand jury earlier this year on charges of abandoning and failing to protect children who were killed and wounded.

Garnett said this might have brought closure to some, but the community is still very divided on the topic of Robb Elementary.

“Many family members and relatives in Uvalde were a part of law enforcement. And then, on the other hand, they had children or relatives who were in the school and may have been injured or in other classrooms,” Garnett said. “They are torn between support for law enforcement and families who are looking for justice and truth.”

This has created uncomfortable situations as gun safety advocates and law enforcement supporters debate where fault for the shooting lies.

“There is a segment of the population in Uvalde that simply says every time we publish a story about Robb, we should be blackballed for continuing the story,” Garnett said. “They say it’s got to end somewhere. But that shadow is long; that is going to be our children’s children who figure out how to heal from the violence.”

Healing through the generations 

The healing process in Uvalde will take time, but Garnett feels like the city is on the right path. He mentioned the creation of the mural in town that displays the faces of the children and teachers killed that day at Robb Elementary was one of the first steps in the healing process.

“It was one of the most uplifting events for most of the community, particularly for the families and survivors, to see those children’s faces in 20 feet of art on a building that we walk and look at every day as we go to work,” Garnett said.

A school building anticipated to replace Robb Elementary will bear the name Legacy Elementary in remembrance of those who died in the mass shooting and will open next fall. A tree structure bearing the children's and teachers' names on its branches will also be placed in the area.

Garnett’s royalties from the book will also go to a fund for a Robb Elementary memorial that is in the works.

Garnett said judging by relatives of victims killed in other mass shootings, it will take years for Uvalde families to heal.

“It’s still not gone,” he said. “It’s still a part of who they are.”