New security measures are in place on Texas public school campuses after an 18-year-old gunman with an AR-15 style rifle killed 19 Uvalde children and two teachers in May. The enhanced security is incomplete but includes high fencing, installation of additional cameras and new locks, according to the Associated Press. The Texas Department of Public Safety has committed to putting nearly three dozen state troopers on Uvalde campuses. Families are struggling to trust them to protect the children.
In other parts of Texas, school started weeks ago. Officials pushed back the first day of class for Uvalde after a summer of revelations about widespread failures by law enforcement officers who allowed the gunman to fire inside adjoining classrooms for more than 70 minutes. A damning report by a Texas House committee found that nearly 400 officers in all rushed to Robb Elementary after the shooting but hesitated for more than an hour to confront the shooter. Body camera and surveillance footage showed heavily armed officers in the hallway, some holding bulletproof shields, not advancing to the classroom. As a result of the massacre, more than 100 families in Uvalde signed up for virtual school, while others pulled their kids out of the district and enrolled them in private schools.