Texas governor begins school-safety discussions
AUSTIN, Texas — Texas Gov. Greg Abbott convened the first in a series of discussions on school safety Tuesday, declaring in response to last week’s shooting near Houston, “We all want guns out of the hands of people who would try to murder our children.”
The governor called the meetings after the attack on Santa Fe High School, where eight students and two teachers were slain Friday in an art classroom. The initial gathering involved school districts that arm some teachers or hire local police for security.
Abbott planned to talk Wednesday with gun-rights advocates and gun-control groups, followed Thursday by meetings with survivors of the school shooting and the November assault on a rural church that killed more than two dozen worshippers in the village of Sutherland Springs.
The Republican governor has been a staunch supporter of gun rights, and there has been little mention of new weapons restrictions in Texas, where more than 1.2 million people are licensed to carry handguns and state law allows for the open carrying of rifles. The state’s top GOP leaders have instead called for “hardening” school campuses and arming more teachers.
The Santa Fe gunman used a handgun and a shotgun that were owned by his father, police have said. It’s unclear whether the suspect’s father was aware that his son had taken the weapons.
After the meeting, Abbott said the topics discussed included better tracking of student mental health, including monitoring of social media; boosting a program that trains and arms teachers; and finding a way to hold parents accountable when their children threaten classmates or kill.
Gun-control measures did not come up, Abbott said. In Austin, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott, center, hosts a roundtable discussion about safety in the state’s schools after the recent deadly school shooting in Sante Fe.
One gun-control group, Texas Gun Sense, said it will push this week for tougher background checks on gun purchases, suicide-prevention programs, gun safety at home and so-called red flag laws that restrict gun access for people identified as potentially dangerous.
After the 2012 assault on Sandy Hook Elementary School in Connecticut, Texas permitted teachers or school employees to carry handguns on campus if they met certain training requirements. Some large school districts also have their own law enforcement offices, and some others contract with local authorities for security.
Nearly 200 Texas school districts allow staff members to carry guns. Santa Fe recently joined them, but officials have said the district’s staff members were still in training. The school did have two armed officers on campus when the shooting started.
Dallas County Schools Superintendent Michael Hinojosa said the conversation on mental health was welcome. He said his district already has a police force and isn’t interested in arming teachers.
The Texas reaction to the Santa Fe shooting stands in sharp contrast to the response after the Feb. 14 shooting rampage at a high school in Parkland, Florida, that killed 17 people. Three weeks after the bloodbath, Florida politicians defied the NRA and passed a gun-control package after a lobbying campaign led by student survivors of the attack.