Texas Schools Collecting Kid's DNA To Identify Them Easier After Potential Mass Shootings

Just before the holiday season rings in. Texas schoolsare sending children home with DNA kits and specific instructions for their parents.

In 2021, the Texas state legislature passed Bill 2158 which requires 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 law was passed soon after students and teachers were gunned down inside Santa Fe High School in Santa Fe, Texas. This was severely close to a year to the day that the 19 fourth graders and two teachers were murdered inside Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas.

The Texas school system will provide kits to K-6 students who are eligible. The kit includes ink-free fingerprint and DNA identification cards.

The kit also includes a three-fold pamphlet with space for their children’s DNA and fingerprints. This can be kept at home or given to law enforcement for safekeeping in the case that their child is involved in a school shooting.

The kits were initially made to “help locate and return a missing or trafficked child.” Having experienced the second deadliest mass shooting in United Staes History, the state is on edge. Not to mention, the lack of capable police presence.

Many parents are pissed that this is the solution that the state is choosing to take as opposed to the obvious; better gun laws.

“No! No they don’t get to do this until they pass common sense gun legislation. No. You get my dna. Period,” wrote an outraged parent. Many people who have zero trust in the police were thought it was a for a different reason. “Sounds like a way for cops to get students fingerprints and dna”

“WOW, instead of trying to curb gun violence, they're sending DNA kits home to make it easier to identify your child in case of a school shooting,” observed an annoyed follower. One person was curious how much money was being spent on these kits.

“Wonder how much money is being spent to send the kits? Seems like that money could have been use to make schools safe. Where did the money come from to produce the kits? Who is responsible for give the “ok” to mail lab kits? Is anyone working on the teacher shortage?”

The Today Show was on the ground to speak with parents about the DNA kit drop and the consensus is that most are against it. A former FBI agent CIA agent, Tracy Walder says,  “I worry every single day when I send my kid to school. Now we're giving parents DNA kits so that when their child is killed with the same weapon of war I had when I was in Afghanistan, parents can use them to identify them?” She is simply “devastated”.

“Yeah! Awesome!” Wrote Brett Cross, a parent whose 10-year-old son Uziyah Garcia was killed in the Robb Elementary School shooting on Twitter.

“Let’s identify kids after they’ve been murdered instead of fixing issues that could ultimately prevent them from being murdered.”