After Texas School Shooting, Police More Visible At America's Schools

ACROSS AMERICA — America’s children reported to schools under greater police presence Wednesday, a day after a gunman barricaded himself in a classroom and opened fire, killing 19 children and two teachers Tuesday at an elementary school in Uvalde, Texas.

The shooting, two days before the end of the school year, cut short the lives of children ranging in age from 7 to 11 before they were old enough to open a bank account or get a summer job mowing lawns. Seventeen people were wounded.

The deadliest slaughter of primary school students since the Sandy Hook massacre in 2012, and one of the deadliest in history, the Uvalde school shooting also spurred calls from one coast to the other for commonsense gun laws.

• The Latest: Gunman Killed 19 Kids, 2 Teachers In Same Classroom

Perhaps nowhere did people empathize more with the “infinite pain” thrust upon the Texas parents than in Newtown, Connecticut in 2012, when a 20-year-old gunman shot and killed 26 people, 20 of them 6- and 7-year-old children.

“For the past decade, we have warned all Americans, including elected politicians across the nation, that if a mass shooting can happen in Sandy Hook, it can happen anywhere,” said Po Murray, who heads the Newtown Action Alliance, a grassroots gun control advocacy group born of the Sandy Hook tragedy. » Read more on Newtown Patch.

Near Detroit, news of the shooting reopened the wound from the Oxford High School shooting in November that left four dead. The 15-year-old accused shooter was charged as an adult — and, in a move that encapsulates America’s growing weariness with gun violence in the hallways of the nation’s schools, prosecutors also charged the teen’s parents.

Michael Bouchard, the sheriff in Oakland County, where Oxford High School is located, said his office received multiple phone calls from survivors of the shooting, which occurred just shy of the six-month anniversary of the Oxford school shooting.

• Related: Texas School Shooting: What We Know About Uvalde Victims

“We know that this re-injures terrible wounds and horrific memories,” Bouchard said. “We want these families to know we are there for them. We are united.” » Read more on Rochester-Rochester Hills Patch.

Concerned about copycats, school officials in cities far from Uvalde, located about 85 miles west of San Antonio, beefed up their security. Doing so has become commonplace in response to gun violence continues on America’s school campuses.

“As with every other school shooting, Columbine, Sandy Hook and too many more, we will study what happened and strengthen our best practices to reduce threats,” said Ben Drati, the superintendent of Santa Monica (California) Schools, adding that school officials have taken steps “to harden the perimeters and entrances to elementary school campuses.”

“By creating better defenses, we reduce the potential threat," Drati said. » Read more on Santa Monica Patch

On Long Island, Suffolk County Police Commissioner Rodney K. Harrison called the shooting a “tragic act of violence against children and school staff inside what should be a safe haven is unfathomable and a parent’s worst nightmare.”

Although there were no credible threats of violence, Harrison said his officers would increase patrol around schools “out of an abundance of caution.” Police in Nassau did the same. » Read more on Huntington Patch.

Police in Leesburg, Virginia, will maintain an enhanced presence for several days to reassure frightened parents. “Like you,” Loudon County Public Schools Superintendent Scott Ziegler wrote in a letter to the community, “I am shocked and deeply saddened by the news of the shooting at Robb Elementary School in Texas. School should, and must, be a place where students and staff feel safe and secure.” » Read more on Leesburg Patch.

New Jersey Acting Attorney General Matthew Platkin said state police officers would be more visible at schools around the Garden State.

“Our students, their families and caregivers, teachers, and school administrators should feel safe in school, and be assured that New Jersey's law enforcement agencies will do everything in their power to protect them,” Platkin said in a statement. » Read more on Across New Jersey Patch.

'We Can Do Better'

In Northfield, Minnesota, school Superintendent Matt Hillman expressed "deep sadness and anger over this senseless murder of children," in a post on the district's website that included resources for talking to children about school violence.

"It is impossible to make sense of such a senseless act, but we try to do so as human beings. Our hearts are with the families in Uvalde as they grieve following this horrific event," he wrote. » Read more on Northfield Patch.

Illinois Federation of Teachers President Dan Montgomery said in a statement that it has been just 10 days since the nation grieved another mass shooting in Buffalo, New York.

"There are no words to help the families through this tragedy. The unimaginable continues to happen in our schools where teachers, students, and parents should feel safe," Montgomery said.
"We feel, too, for the educators and school staff who must cope with their own shock, grief, and fear to help their students, parents, and community heal," he added. "We understand how overwhelming that task must be and wish you strength and courage at this difficult time."

The Illinois Education Association, which has about 135,000 members and is the largest union in the state, issued a statement on social media Tuesday evening.

"We remain committed to creating safe schools for all, which means ending gun violence in our schools," union representatives said.

"Our schools should be safe havens for our students and a place our educators can work without fear," the statement continued. "We can do better. Our hearts go out to the Uvalde community." » Read more on Evanston Patch

‘Somebody Knew Something’

Officials with Meta, which owns Facebook, confirmed the gunman, Salvador Ramos, sent a series of messages warning about what was about to happen.

“I’m going to shoot my grandmother,” he wrote in one, Texas Gov. Greg Abbott said in a news conference Wednesday. In a followup message, he wrote, “I shot my grandmother,” Abbott said. And about 15 minutes before he barricaded himself in the Robb Elementary School classroom, the gunman wrote “I’m going to shoot an elementary school,” according to the governor.

Across the country, law enforcement authorities, school officials and others repeated the warning: “If you see something, say something.”

• Related: Texas School Shooting: Salvador Ramos’ Rapid Facebook Posts Only Warning

"I've been doing this job a long time, and the one thing you always hear is after a shooting happens, somebody knew something. … The key is getting that information to law enforcement before something happens,” Mark Stainbrook, the police chief in Beverly Hills, California, told the City Council on Tuesday night.

“That’s the best thing everybody can do, so we can stop the incident before it happens," Stainbrook said. » Read more on Beverly Hills Patch

In New York City, authorities have been tackling a surge in weapons in schools. So far this school year, school safety teams have found more than 5,500 weapons and 20 guns — including at least three guns found in two teenagers’ backpacks.

"They were able to prevent a tragedy — this time," New York City Mayor Eric Adams said, pointing to the three guns found in knapsacks. "Public safety can't be about luck. ... It's going to take so much more.” » Read more on Tribeca-FiDi Patch.

‘This Is On You’

Elected officials across the country decried the violence. And as has become commonplace in the wake of school shootings, some offered their prayers to the victims and their families.

"The massacre of innocent children, our elderly, and indeed any American, cannot be tolerated in our society, and yet these vile acts of senseless violence continue,” top officials in Morris County, New Jersey, said in a joint statement condemning both the Texas school shooting and a mass killing in Buffalo, New York, that investigators have said was racially motivated.

“Even at a time when gun violence is on the rise, it shocks the conscious that it is our youngest citizens who were targeted and brutalized. The actions of the two cowards — one in Buffalo and now one in Texas — who chose to arm themselves with assault weapons and body armor, and then attack defenseless school children and elderly innocents is unimaginably evil and tragic in every aspect. We condemn these horrific acts, and extend our hearts to the grieving communities of Buffalo and Uvalde." » Read more on Morristown Patch.

• Related: O'Rourke Interrupts Texas Shooting Press Conference: 'This Is On You'

Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker tweeted Tuesday the shooting was “heart-wrenching and enraging,” adding “my prayers are with (victims') families and my resolve is with all Americans who are working to end senseless gun violence wherever it occurs."

Aurora Mayor Richard Irvin, a Republican who is running for Pritzker’s job, called the shooting a “horrific act” and called for stiffer background checks for people purchasing guns — a key sticking point in moving federal gun reform legislation forward. » Read more on Aurora Patch.

Senate Democrats acted swiftly Wednesday to move gun control legislation forward to expand criminal background checks on those attempting to buy guns on the internet and at gun shows, and to lengthen the waiting period for gun buyers who have been flagged by the instant background check to give the FBI more time to investigate.

The two bills passed the House in 2019 and again in 2021, but they haven’t budged in the Senate, where Republicans have signaled they won’t vote for it. Even with the tragedy in Texas top of mind, there’s little indication Republicans in the Senate have changed their minds.

Democrats’ boiling-over frustration over gun reform was viscerally demonstrated Wednesday when Texas Democratic gubernatorial candidate Beto O’Rourke derailed a news conference hosted by Abbott, the Republican O’Rourke wants to unseat.

“This is totally predictable when you choose not to do anything," O’Rourke told Abbott and the rest of the panel. “This is on you until you choose to do something."