A law rolling out in Texas that calls for public schools to hand out DNA and fingerprint identification kits for students – in an effort to help parents identify their children in the event of an emergency – is causing a wave of backlash from those calling for gun reform.
Public schools in the state are beginning the distribution this week after the state legislature passed a spring 2021 law that would require the Texas Education Agency “to provide identification kits to school districts and open-enrollment charter schools for distribution to the parent or legal custodian of certain students”. The “inkless, in-home fingerprint and DNA identification kits” are for any “parent or legal custodian” who may want to “submit the kit to federal, state, tribal, or local law enforcement to help locate and return a missing or trafficked child.”
The kits retail for about $10 each and will be given out for free at each primary-level campus, according to The Houston Chronicle.
The outlet noted that Houston Independent School District, which is the largest in the state, will begin kit distribution this week while other districts have “already begun to notify parents that the kits are available.”
In response, many critics have widely slammed the move as Texas has yet to make any meaningful action in gun reform barely six months after a mass shooting in a Uvalde elementary school left 19 children and two teachers dead.
Bob Sanborn, president of the nonprofit Children at Risk, told The Houston Chronicle that this legislation, when put “in the light of Uvalde, it’s one of the most macabre things you could think about.”
Texas candidate for governor Beto O’Rourke lambasted the move as part of “Greg Abbott’s Texas”.
“More school shootings than any other state on his watch but no action to prevent the next. We will not allow this to be our future. We will keep our kids safe,” he tweeted.
Arizona congressman Rep Ruben Gallego tweeted an endorsement for Mr O’Rourke alongside a forceful message: “Texas, where they won’t do universal background to stop criminals because it’s too intrusive but will take your kids DNA to ID your kids if there is a school shooting. #votebeto.”
Olivia Julianna, Director of Politics and Government for the nonprofit Gen-Z for Change, also echoed Mr O’Rourke’s sentiments and criticized Mr Abbott’s leadership: “The leadership of Texas would rather finger print your kids to identify their dead bodies in schools than pass legitimate gun reform. This is what the GOP has done to TX. This is what children and parents will face while @GregAbbott_TX is governor.”
Brett Cross, a parent who lost their son in the Robb Elementary School shooting, tweeted a sarcastic response to the news of the kits: “Yeah! Awesome! Let’s identify kids after they’ve been murdered instead of fixing issues that could ultimately prevent them from being murdered.”
One person simply remarked, “This is real. What a broken country,” while another said: “Texas school districts are now giving out DNA tests to school age children in case their bodies are mangled beyond recognition in a school shooting. They literally will not do ANYTHING to protect our children, but they will help identify their bodies.”
The Independent has contacted Gov Abbott and Beto O’Rourke’s offices for comment.
