Site of Uvalde school shooting to be demolished

June 22 (UPI) -- The site of May's deadly school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, will be demolished, the city's mayor said.

Mayor Don McLaughlin confirmed during a special city council meeting Tuesday that Robb Elementary School will be razed and replaced, but did not provide a timeline for that to happen.

"My understanding -- and I had this discussion with the superintendent -- that school will be demolished," McLaughlin said.

"You can never ask a child to go back or a teacher to go back in that school ever."

McLaughlin isn't the first public official to call for the school's demolition.

In early June, Texas Rep. Tony Gonzales tweeted: "I ​​am working with many private and public partners to ensure no child will ever have to return to Robb Elementary. We heal, we rebuild, and we never forget."

Around the same time, Javier Cazares, who lost his daughter Jacklyn in the shooting, called for the school to be torn down.

"The kids and teachers, they shouldn't have to go back to that school. They're not gonna want to go back to that school," Cazares told CBS June 5.

Cazares was also at Tuesday's city council meeting to see McLaughlin call for the same result.

During the same meeting, the council voted unanimously to deny a leave of absence request for School District Police Chief Pete Arredondo, who was the commanding officer at the scene. Arredondo has told investigators that he was not aware he was in charge. McLaughlin confirmed to CBS that Arredondo requested the leave.

Public sentiment continues to be critical of police response to the massacre, in which an 18-year-old gunman using a semi-automatic rifle killed 19 children and two adults on May 24. Parents and other critics say Uvalde police erred by not immediately breaching a classroom where the gunman killed his victims.