Uvalde begins a new school year and this teacher injured in the massacre will not return to class

By Acacia Coronado

UVALDE, Texas — Elsa Ávila terrified for her phone as she held her bleeding abdomen and tried to remain calm in front of her students.

She in a text message to her family wrote: "I was shot."

For the first time in 30 years, Ávila will not return to school when classes resume Tuesday in the small town in southwest Texas.

The start of the new school year will be different for her, as it is for other survivors of the May 24 shooting at Robb Elementary School that killed 21 people, as the teacher has focused on healing, both physically and mentally.

Some students have opted for virtual classes, others for private schools.

Many will return to Uvalde School District campuses, although

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"I'm trying to make sense of everything," Ávila said in an interview in August, "but it will never make sense."

The scar on his torso brings tears to her eyes, as it is a permanent reminder of the horror she experienced with her 16 students as they waited for help in their classroom for an hour, when a gunman massacred 19 children and two teachers in two adjoining rooms.

Retired teachers, Raul Noyola and Ofelia Noyola, visited a memorial in July in honor of the 22 victims of the massacre at the Robb School in Uvalde, Texas. Eric Gay / AP

Minutes before she felt the sharp pain of the bullet passing through her intestine and colon, Ávila was pushing students away from walls and windows and asking them to stay close to her.

A student who was by the door to go to recess told him that something was happening outside: people were running and screaming.

As she locked the door to the classroom, her students barricaded themselves in, as they were trained to do.

Moments later, the gunman stormed into his fourth grade pavilion and began shooting before entering rooms 111 and 112.

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In room 109, Ávila sent several texts asking for help, according to messages reviewed by

.

The first, at 11:35 am, was a text message to her family that was intended for the teachers' group chat.

Then at 11:45, he responded to a text from the school counselor asking if his classroom was closed.

“I was shot, send help,” the teacher replied.

"Yes, it's on its way," the director replied, at 11:48 am.

It is not clear if his messages were passed on to the police.

District officials did not respond to requests for comment about actions taken to contact police on May 24, and an attorney for then-Director Mandy Gutierrez was unavailable for comment.

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According to a legislative committee report that described a botched police response, nearly 400 local, state and federal officers stood in the hallway of the fourth-grade pavilion or outside the building for 77 minutes before some finally entered adjoining classrooms and They will kill the gunman.

Lawmakers also found the school had lax security protocols and other flaws, including problems with door locks.

State and federal investigations into the shooting are still ongoing.

The district is working to devise new security measures, and in August the school board fired the district's police chief, Pete Arredondo.

Residents say it is not yet clear how, or if, trust between the community and officials can be rebuilt.

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Avila remembers hearing the deafening bursts of rapid fire, then silence, and then the voices of officers in the hallway yelling, "Crossfire!"

And then more officers standing nearby.

“But still no one came to help us,” he said.

As Ávila lay motionless, unable to speak loud enough to be heard, some of her students shook her.

She wished she had the strength to tell them that she was still alive.

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A light shone in his window, but no one identified himself.

Scared that it might be the gunman, the students moved away.

“The girls closest to me kept patting me and saying, 'It's going to be okay, miss.

We love you miss,'” Avila said.

Finally, at 12:33 pm a window in his classroom was broken.

Officers arrived to evacuate their students, the last to leave the area, according to Avila.

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With what strength she had left, the teacher got up and helped the students to sit on chairs and tables and through the window.

Later, as she clutched her side, she told a police officer that she was too weak to jump.

So he went in through the window to get her out of it.

“I never saw my children again.

I know they jumped out the window and I could only hear them saying, 'Run, run, run!'” Avila said.

She remembers being taken to the airport, where a helicopter took her to a hospital in San Antonio.

She was receiving medical care until June 18.

Image taken on May 25, 2022, one day after the shooting at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, as investigators searched for evidence to investigate the massacre. Jae C. Hong / AP

Ávila later learned that a student in her class was injured in the nose and mouth, but has since left the hospital.

Other students helped their injured classmates until the authorities arrived.

"I'm very proud of them because they were able to stay calm for the entire hour that we were there terrified," Avila said.

As her students prepare to return to school for the first time since that traumatic day, Ávila is on the road to recovery, receiving physical and psychological therapy.

He says that he hopes to teach classes again one day.

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A memorial to those killed stands at the gate of the now-closed Robb Elementary.

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Last week, Ávila and several of her students got together for the end-of-year party that they couldn't hold in May.

They played in a pool and she presented them with small cross bracelets to remind them that “God was with us that day and they are not alone,” she said.

“We always talked about being kind, being respectful, taking care of each other, and that day they did it,” said the teacher.

“They took care of each other.

And they took care of me."