Big changes could be coming to Texas schools in the name of security, News Radio 1200 WOAI reports.
A bill filed by State Rep Shawn Thierry (D-Houston) would mandate metal detectors at each building where kids either attend class or take part in school-sponsored activities
."A school district or open-enrollment charter school shall screen persons entering the building for weapons by installing a walk-through metal detector or using a handheld metal detector at each entrance to the building that is accessible from the outside," it reads.
Metal detectors was one idea that came out of hearings following the Santa Fe school shooting. Eight students and two teachers were fatally shot and thirteen others were wounded at the suburban Houston campus. Because there were no metal detectors, security was not alerted to the gunman's pump-action Remington Model 870 shotgun and a .38-caliber revolver.
In July, the board of the Santa Fe ISD voted to install metal detectors at all four of their campuses at a cost of about $1.5 million.
But an across-the-board mandate doesn’t sit well with Shelley Potter, who heads the San Antonio Alliance of Teachers and Support Personnel. She feels it makes the campuses feel not welcoming
."I don’t think any of us want to see our schools look like prisons because we do want that connection to community. We want the parents to feel welcome. We want the students to feel welcome."
IMAGE: GETTY