I am wondering if Uvalde has no fire department with halligan tools, no stores with sledge hammers, or someone with a portable cutting torch rig or just people not smart enough to make use of any of them. It's amazing what you can do to steel with an A/O rig and a #4 cutting tip and how quickly you can do it. Oh well, I wasn't there so know nothing.
Oldandslow, barricaded perps, or even those locked in rooms with security doors present all sorts of problems to tactical units which are far different than military combat operations.
I have personally ran into some of these issues and they have to be "worked around" where when the solution is applied, it will have be near foolproof.
Most inside security doors that are "metal" are actually "metal skinned" and designed to be somewhat flexible in certain areas, but not totally.
If not under fire, I have used a plain old hi-lift jack to horizontally stretch the door facing away from the locking mechanism DEPENDING on how much door facing was on my side of the door.
One on another thread suggested taking out the hinges with an AR15, with kids in the targeted room. An insane idea on the best day. You have no idea where deflected bullets are going, or where anyone in that room are located.
But here is a consideration I have ran into. When the hinges are on the other side of the door, SWAT (or those Uvalde officers, would have no idea of their location.
Also, damage the lock, and a key may not even get you in. Remember, it's a security door.
As to your idea of a torch? What is under that metal door skin, how old is the building, and what were building fire codes when it was built? Burn down a building full of kids, dead or alive and read those headlines.
The Texas Rangers is, and always has been a Crack outfit. I personally have worked closely with several good Rangers. They will get all the answers to who coulda, shoulda, woulda.
In the Waco Branch Davidian massacre, they burned the ATF, the US Marshalls, and Janet Reno to the ground in front of Congress.
We're gonna know the real truth when their done, but in the meantime I'm gonna give those officers the benefit of the doubt they deserve. Cowards don't run into a fight, and they did.