Texas students to get ID kits to identify children’s bodies in emergencies

Millions of Texas children will get identification kits designed for parents to collect fingerprints and DNA to be used in case their kids are in an emergency such as a school shooting.

Nearly 4 million Texans from kindergarten through grade eight will bring home a tri-fold pamphlet this month in which parents can place their children's fingerprints, photo and a DNA sample, according to ABC13.

In 2021, the state legislature passed a law requiring all school districts and open-enrollment charter schools to provide the kits to parents. The measure was passed three years after a deadly shooting at Santa Fe high school that left eight students and two teachers dead. Earlier this year, a shooter at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde killed 19 fourth graders and two teachers.

Parents do not have to use the kits. But some expressed frustration that the state seemed to be preparing for inevitable child deaths without addressing gun control. Texas governor Greg Abbott, a Republican seeking re-election this year, has fiercely resisted any efforts to limit access to firearms.

"It was almost like the state just throwing their hands up and saying, 'We can't do anything about the guns. We're not going to change any of the laws. So, therefore, the next best thing is to make sure that we can identify your K through eighth grader if they are killed in any type of school incident," Anthony Crutch, a parent in Clear Creek, Texas told ABC13.

Tracy Walder, who has a daughter in the second grade, told NBC she struggled to find words to describe her feelings around the kits.

"This sends two messages: The first is that the government is not going to do anything to solve the problem. This is their way of telling us that," she told NBC. "The second is that us parents are now forced to have conversations with our kids that they may not be emotionally ready for. My daughter is 7. What do I tell her?"

After the shooting in Uvalde, some of the children were harmed so severely that officials struggled to identify the bodies. Brett Cross, whose son was killed in the Robb elementary school shooting, also expressed frustration on Twitter about 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," he said.