Calls mount for lawmakers to take action.
Bipartisan pleas ask governor to address safety in schools
AUSTIN — Pressure is mounting for Gov. Greg Abbott to call a special session on school safety as the governor launches a three-day roundtable discussion Tuesday about how to better protect students after 10 Texas high schoolers and teachers were shot to death at Santa Fe High School.
Politicians from both parties called on the governor to order the Legislature into a special session to address school safety as soon as possible instead of waiting until the 2019 legislative session, tapping national momentum for attacking a decades-long rash of school shootings that are happening more often — and now, close to home.
“These school shootings are happening with increasing frequency and are senseless tragedies that we must eradicate. The time to act is now, for not only our children’s safety, but for the peace of mind of all Texans by restoring their confidence in our duty to protect them,” Rep. Byron Cook, a Republican from north of Waco, wrote Monday in a letter to Abbott.
“The time to act is now,” Rep. Jason Villalba, a Dallas Republican, said on Twitter before sending the governor his own plea for a special session. “We have only 90 days until the 2018-2019 school year begins. I do not denigrate the power of prayer, but this is the season of action.”
Democratic candidate for governor Andrew White and House Democratic Caucus Chairman Chris Turner of Grand Prairie also called on the governor to summon lawmakers back to Austin.
“While discussions to generate consensus are welcome, we believe we also have a responsibility to act immediately to prevent an increase of gun deaths and to prevent the loss of more life in Texas,” said Turner, who asked the governor to consider 16 gun bills, largely punishing people for carrying guns in certain places frequented by children or making it harder for certain people with a troublesome past from buying firearms.
A spokesman for Abbott did not respond to requests for comment.
The roundtable discussions come less than a week after Dimitrios Pagourtzis, 17, allegedly opened fire at Santa Fe High School, leaving a trail of carnage in the blue-collar town 30 miles south of Houston. Pagourtzis, who was reportedly bullied, killed 10 people and injured another 13 people Friday with his father’s revolver and shotgun, officials say.
It was a little more than six months ago that Abbott was offering condolences to the people of Sutherland Springs after another mass shooting. In the massacre at a church near San Antonio, 23 were killed and 20 injured when a 26-year-old man who previously served in the Air Force went on a rampage, shooting congregants at point-blank range after months of arguing with his mother-in-law.
Abbott’s roundtable discussion on school safety begins Tuesday with a 23-member cadre mostly of government officials and leaders in law enforcement, plus five school district superintendents, a high school principal and an architect. The meeting is largely closed to the public. Attendees on other days are expected to include victims from Santa Fe and Sutherland Springs, as well as gun rights activists and people involved in education.
There’s so far little consensus on how to prevent school shootings.
Abbott is entertaining ideas to speed up background checks, find strategies to keep guns out of the hands of people who are dangerous, beef up security at schools and pay attention to the links between mental illness and gun violence. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick, a Houston Republican, said he wants to explore limiting entrances to school buildings and encouraged parents to safely store their guns. He also caught heat for contending that school violence is an outgrowth of violent video games and movies, abortion, the breakup of families and cultural devaluing of life. He has also advocated for arming teachers, which is already allowed in Texas.
Rania Mankarious, Crime Stoppers of Houston CEO, has some of her own ideas, like trying to scale up its program that offers a free and anonymous hotline students can use to call in tips about fellow students who plan on bringing a gun to school or otherwise hurting people. The program, which also includes educating students and adults about school safety, has helped remove nearly 300 weapons from Houston-area schools before they could be used against kids, she said.
“At the end of the day, these kids are the first line of intelligence, and unfortunately the first line of defense and the first targets,” she said. “We’ve got to stop politicizing this. We’ve got to stop wasting time, because another school shooting will happen.”