Skip to content
Search AI Powered

Latest Stories

Texas Schools Now Sending Parents DNA Kits To Identify Students' Bodies 'In Case Of Emergency'

gon control activists stage protest
OLIVER CONTRERAS/AFP via Getty Images

A law requiring the kits passed the Texas state legislature in 2021, nearly a year before the deadly mass shooting in Uvalde.

Make us preferred on Google

A new move by Texas schools takes the state's and the country's gun violence crisis to a whole new dystopian level.

Texas school are now sending students' parents DNA kits so that they can identify students' bodies "in case of emergency."


The law passed the state's Senate last year, nearly a full year before May's horrific school shooting in Uvalde, the second-deadliest in America's all too long history of school shootings.

The move has shocked and enraged many who feel the move is just yet another effort by the state's heavily Republican government, politicians and Governor Greg Abbott to dodge meaningful action on gun violence and gun safety.

The law mandating 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," was passed last year in the wake of a shooting at a school in Santa Fe, Texas in which eight students and two teachers were killed.

It requires schools to provide ink-free fingerprint and DNA identification cards to parents of all students in kindergarten through sixth grade that can be stored at home by parents. Parents are not required to use the kits.

The move comes just months after the shooting in Uvalde, after which many of the young victims were unidentifiable due to the extent of the injuries they sustained in the shooting. DNA swabs had to be provided by parents to positively confirm identity for some victims.

The move has left many Texas parents outraged. One of them, combat veteran and former FBI and CIA agent Tracy Walder, spoke to TODAY about receiving the kits, calling the move "beyond comprehension."

"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?"

Walder went on to say that the kits send a clear message: The Texas government intends to do nothing about gun violence, no matter how damaging it may be to the state's children.

"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."
"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?"

Another parent, Brent Cross, whose 10-year-old son was murdered at Uvalde, was a bit more pointed in his criticism. He tweeted:

"Yeah! Awesome! Let’s identify kids after they’ve been murdered instead of fixing issues that could ultimately prevent them from being murdered."
"It’s like wiping your a** before you take a sh*t."

Texas parent Wendi Aarons was even more to the point about how the DNA kits make her feel.

"It makes me physically sick."

Many on Twitter shared these parents' sentiments, as the news left them appalled and infuriated.










Adding to the absurdity is the law's stated reason for the DNA kits: to “help locate and return a missing or trafficked child.”

Governor Abbott, his Republican Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick, Republican Attorney General Ken Paxton, both Republican Texas Senators Ted Cruz and John Cornyn and scores of state-level Republican legislators in Texas are all backed by the National Rifle Association, which spends more money lobbying in Texas than any other state in America.

More from Trending

Nicolle Wallace; Marco Rubio and Donald Trump
MS NOW; Jakub Porzycki/NurPhoto via Getty Images

Nicolle Wallace Offers Hilariously Brutal Suggestion For 'Addled' Trump Amid 'Bizarre' NATO Press Conferences

MAGA Republican President Donald Trump has been participating in the NATO Summit in Ankara, Turkey, since Tuesday afternoon, but the visit has been anything but successful for the embattled POTUS.

Trump's appearances before the international press on hand for the summit have been rife with gaffes that have the domestic and international communities both amused and concerned over the 80-year-old's continued cognitive decline.

Keep ReadingShow less
Catherine Zeta-Jones; Bonnie Tyler
Monica Schipper/Getty Images; Christian Augustin/Getty Images

Catherine Zeta-Jones Pens Touching Tribute To Singer Bonnie Tyler After Death—And Fans Are Emotional

Bonnie Tyler, singer of "Total Eclipse of the Heart" and "Holding Out for a Hero," died on July 8, 2026, just a month after her 78th birthday.

She was in a hospital in Portugal, and she died unexpectedly from the illness she was being treated for.

Keep ReadingShow less
Screenshot of Rasmus Svaneborg; Mark Rutte
@atrupar/X; Altan Gocher / Hans Lucas / AFP via Getty Images

Reporter Puts NATO Secretary General On The Spot With Brutal 'Self-Respect' Question About Trump

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte found himself on the spot after Danish reporter Rasmus Svaneborg questioned whether sitting silently beside President Donald Trump as he discusses "conquering" Greenland and criticizing allies has impacted his "self-respect."

Rutte, a former Dutch prime minister, has been forced to manage Trump's repeated criticism of NATO while contending with his public insistence that the United States should acquire Greenland from Denmark.

Keep ReadingShow less
Andrew Garfield
Darren Gerrish/WireImage/Ralph Lauren/Getty Images

Andrew Garfield's New Long Hair Has Fans Completely Swooning—And We So Get It

One thing that fans have always appreciated about Andrew Garfield is his very healthy head of hair.

Even when he wore his hair shorter for The Social Network, or just slightly longer and spiked up for The Amazing Spider-Man, it was obvious that he had very thick and luscious hair.

Keep ReadingShow less
Screenshot of JD Vance; Julia Louis-Dreyfus
@HQNewsNow/X; Angela Weiss/AFP via Getty Images

JD Vance Pauses Rally To Check If He Got A Call From Trump—And It's Giving Major 'Veep' Vibes

Vice President JD Vance drew comparisons to Selina Meyer, the bumbling vice president played by actor Julia Louis-Dreyfus on HBO's hit political satire Veep after he stopped a rally speech to check whether President Donald Trump had called him.

As Selina Meyer, Julia Louis-Dreyfus won multiple Emmy Awards and numerous other accolades for portraying the perpetually dysfunctional vice president.

Keep ReadingShow less