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.

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

Screenshot of George Santos; Zohran Mamdani
@MrSantosNY/X; Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images

George Santos Announced He's Leaving New York After Mamdani's Win—And The Responses Are Brutal

Disgraced former New York Republican Representative George Santos was widely mocked after he announced he will leave New York City now that Zohran Mamdani has won the mayoral election.

Mamdani has sent shockwaves around the world with his win; an unapologetic democratic socialist, he took on the establishment and won despite months of Islamophobic and racist attacks from the right-wing.

Keep ReadingShow less
Screenshot of man collapsing and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. preparing to walk out
@atrupar/X

RFK Jr. Dragged For Bolting Out Of Oval Office The Moment A Man Collapsed During Press Briefing

Health and Human Services (HHS) Robert F. Kennedy Jr. was criticized after hurrying out of a press briefing in the Oval Office on Thursday after a man had a medical emergency and suddenly collapsed.

Kennedy was on hand alongside President Donald Trump, Dr. Mehmet Oz—the current Administrator for the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services—and health aides for a press briefing announcing lower costs for weight loss drugs.

Keep ReadingShow less

Times People Saw Someone Almost Die Due To Their Own Actions

All actions have consequences, some more negative and severe than others.

But sometimes, someone will do something so extreme or stupid, it could almost cost them their life.

Keep ReadingShow less

Cancer Patients Explain Which Symptoms Ultimately Led Them To See A Doctor

Cancer has taken far too many lives and affected far too many people.

Where is a cure?

Keep ReadingShow less
Close-up shot of the number 30 painted on asphalt.
Photo by Markus Spiske on Unsplash

People Over 30 Share Their Biggest Regrets In Life

Life goes by in a flash.

When we're young, we tend to laugh off that statement.

Keep ReadingShow less