Gov. Greg Abbott today will release his proposals for school safety in the wake of the Santa Fe High School shooting earlier this month, but before he could release the ideas, the governor was upstaged by Lieutenant Gov. Dan Patrick, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
Patrick made his recommendations in a campaign re-election ad that was released last night.
“The root cause of school violence is a culture that he removed God from our schools, devalued life in the form of abortion, promoted the break up of families, and violent video games and movies,” Patrick said.
“First, we must make our schools more secure, by limiting entry points and monitoring them with cameras or personnel,” Patrick said.
Abbott is expected to release his proposals in appearances this afternoon in Dallas and San Marcos. Abbott, who held three high profile ‘round tables’ on the issue last week, is expected to propose security updates for school entrances and exits, more school marshals, more mental health officials in schools, and the creation of faculty ‘threat assessment teams’ in schools.
It is not expected that Abbott will announce how he plans to pay for all of his upgrades.
Political analyst Mark Jones of Rice University says this is clearly a case of Patrick showing his voters that he is the leader on the school violence front.
“The Lieutenant Governor believes he is an equal at least close to an equal power player in Texas to Governor Abbott,” Jones said.
PHOTO: GOV. ABBOTT HOLDING A ROUND TABLE MEETING ON SCHOOL VIOLENCE, COURTESY OF OFFICE OF THE GOVERNOR