Public college districts in Texas will quickly begin providing DNA and fingerprint kits to households of scholars as a part of a legislation to assist determine kids in case of an “emergency,” based on a brand new report from the Houston Chronicle. And whereas the legislation by no means explicitly says it’s for figuring out children whose our bodies could also be torn to shreds by a college shooter with a high-powered rifle, that’s all any dad or mum can take into consideration, since that’s what occurred in Uvalde earlier this 12 months.
The DNA and fingerprint kits, which can be found for youths from kindergarten to eighth grade in Texas, will be saved at residence or given to the college or native police division, relying on the needs of fogeys and guardians. The brand new program is a part of a Texas legislation handed in 2021 that makes clear the DNA samples and fingerprints are voluntary. And it’s billed as one thing that may be saved on file simply in case kids have to be recognized by strangers.
“Participation in this system is totally voluntary and permits mother and father to take, retailer and management their little one’s fingerprints and DNA of their own residence within the occasion that’s ever wanted,” a spokesperson for the Canutillo college district instructed a neighborhood CBS affiliate.
Some mother and father in Texas are understandably upset about your complete thought of taking their child’s DNA, noting that it does nothing to stop college shootings.
“DNA or fingerprints won’t make my child safer,” one dad or mum from the Houston Impartial College District instructed the Houston Chronicle.”It should assist with identification afterwards.”
In Uvalde, the place 19 kids and two lecturers have been murdered whereas police waited outdoors, lots of the children had their our bodies so destroyed by the killer’s bullets that folks have been requested to submit DNA samples to assist determine their children. Actually, no less than two of the youngsters murdered at Uvalde have been described as “decapitated” by the gunman’s AR-15, based on Dr. Roy Guerrero, a pediatrician who was working at Uvalde Memorial Hospital as kids have been introduced in.
“I had heard from a few of the nurses that there have been two lifeless kids who had been moved to the surgical space of the hospital. What I did discover was one thing no prayer will ever relieve,” Dr. Guerrero testified to a congressional listening to the following month.
“Two kids, whose our bodies had been so pulverized by the bullets fired at them, decapitated, whose flesh had been so ripped aside, that the solely clue as to their identities was the blood-spattered cartoon garments nonetheless clinging to them. Clinging for all times and discovering none,” Guerrero mentioned.
Minor gun reforms have been handed within the wake of Uvalde, although they failed to handle any of the foremost proposals by Democrats, together with the will to boost the age to buy a gun, a proposal to ban assault weapons because the nation had performed within the Nineties, and to broaden common background checks.
The U.S. nonetheless has a few of the most relaxed gun legal guidelines amongst all rich nations. And the onus continues to be on colleges to “harden” as if they’re army installations, and pursue new ways just like the DNA kits to arrange for the worst.
Whereas the brand new Texas legislation states that no little one’s fingerprints will be, “used as proof in any legal continuing wherein the kid is a defendant,” it doesn’t say something comparable concerning the DNA pattern. The legislation additionally says that colleges ought to undertake guidelines for the destruction of fingerprints and images of scholars used for identification functions, however by no means outlines what these guidelines ought to be, not to mention point out how these information ought to be maintained to make sure privateness. And, once more, it doesn’t say something about adopting guidelines to destroy DNA samples.
