AUSTIN, Texas — On Monday, the Texas State Teachers Association (TSTA) called on state leaders to act in the wake of the Uvalde shooting report – not just talk about what could be done.
"It should be up to the State to fund our schools so that we don't have to fight over resources, so that we can fix doors that don't lock, so that we can have all the resources like good Wi-Fi, so that we have radio communication whenever something like this happens," TSTA President Ovidia Molina said. "We need to ensure that our state is doing more."
The report released on Sunday laid out what happened in the leadup to the shooting as well as the response to the shooting. State Rep. Dustin Burrows (R-Lubbock) called it a "systemic failure" during a press conference on Sunday afternoon.
"Some [lawmakers] are asking to arm our educators," Molina recounted. "In the classroom, everybody says, 'Give a teacher a gun,' but we know that there are more than just teachers in our school buildings. So to arm an educator and expect a different result – to expect that the educator is going to do a better job than the armed and trained officers that were there that could not protect our students – should just be thrown out the window. That should not be a conversation anymore."
Both Burrows and Rep. Joe Moody (D-El Paso) said on Sunday the day's meetings and report were just laying out facts, not trying to find solutions.
"My biggest fear, and I also shared this with them at the meeting, is that we will look for simple solutions to these complex answers," Burrows said on Sunday.
But Molina is tired of talking. She wants to see action by lawmakers.
"It's not an issue of just school safety. It's an issue of Texas safety. That's why we're asking for raising the age to 21 to buy a weapon and to question, why do we need weapons of mass destruction out in our communities? Where are the red flag laws and how can we better use them?" Molina said. "We have representatives that have asked, from the Republican side and Democrat side, for a special session to talk and actually do something about these issues. And he's yet done nothing. He doesn't want a special session. He's saying that he's going to do something. He will address it. But he hasn't. It hasn't been done in previous shootings and massacres."
With students returning to classes in the next month, Molina hopes teachers and their students can feel some semblance of safety.
"Our message to our educators and our students is to not be afraid, and it's really hard to say that too," Molina said. "I know that educators are going into their campuses and ensuring that they know all of the safety mechanisms that are in place and that you're going to be vocal, like I said before, to make sure that if anything is out of whack, that we are talking about it and addressing it. We're going to be hyper vigilant. But we also want to make sure that our students feel that school is a good place. And that's why we have such a fight against making our schools more prison-like because we want our students to love coming to school."
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