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Texas public schools are set to begin providing parents with DNA and fingerprinting kits to aid in identifying their children in the event of an “emergency.” The program, which was set in motion following the 2013 Santa Fe High School shooting, is coming into implementation less than a year after one of the deadliest mass shootings in U.S. history took place at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.
According to local news station KTRK, 3.8 million optional kits are expected to be distributed to parents of children attending kindergarten through 8th grade as part of the program. The kits will allow parents to keep a description, saliva sample, and fingerprints on file for their child that can then be turned over to authorities should they need to be identified.
Following the killing of 19 children and two teachers at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas, reports emerged that the bodies of some children had been so disfigured by the shooter that DNA was required to establish their identity. Providing parents with DNA kits to preempt a similar situation was not well received by some Texas parents. “It’s like wiping your ass before you take a shit,” Brett Cross, who’s son Uziyah Garcia was killed in Uvalde, wrote on Twitter. “Let’s identify kids after they’ve been murdered instead of fixing issues that could ultimately prevent them from being murdered.”
The Lone Star State has had a decade punctuated by devastating mass shootings, Texas leaders have received widespread criticism for implementing stop-gap measures, like requiring students in some school districts to use clear backpacks, all while rolling back restrictions on firearms sales and possession. Despite reports that the Uvalde shooter purchased the two AR-15-style rifles he used to carry out the shooting days after turning 18, and carried out the massacre within days of the purchase, Texas Governor Gregg Abbott refused to entertain the notion of raising the age minimum, or implement other protective restrictions on firearm sales.
As reported by Rolling Stone, in the aftermath of Uvalde, lawmakers and GOP strategists directed pundits and lawmakers to pivot away from talk of gun control at any cost. “Ignore guns, talk inflation,” read one prep memo created for a GOP senate candidate.
The moment is not over for the families of mass shootings, and it’s not over for the parents who are sending their children to school fearing that on any given day they may not come home. In Texas, many of those parents will now be keeping their child’s DNA sample alongside birth certificates and medical records.
