DALLAS _ Texas Gov. Greg Abbott Wednesday unveiled a 43-page "School and Firearm Safety Action Plan" that would expand training for arming teachers and mental health evaluations for students, among other ideas. Abbott did not foreclose the possibility of a special session of the Legislature to act on his recommendations.
"A special session is not a debating society. A special session is for passing laws," said Abbott, a Republican. "If there is some consensus on laws that can be passed, I'm open to calling one."
He said that even with a special session this summer, laws wouldn't go into effect in time for start of next school year.
The governor gets to determine the date of any special session and sets its agenda. It would be a dramatic move in the midst of an election year in which much of the Legislature and he and other statewide elected officials are on the ballot.
Abbott's school safety plan comes less than two weeks after the shooting at Santa Fe High School, which claimed 10 lives.
Former Dallas County Sheriff Lupe Valdez, the Democratic candidate for governor, issued a statement saying that while some of Abbott's proposals, like increased mental health counseling, "are essential and should have been enacted years ago, it is astounding how few of Gov. Abbott's proposals directly address gun violence and how he ignored some of the most critical steps we must take. With this insufficient plan, Gov. Abbott has proven yet again why parents, teachers, and students can't trust him."
Valdez spokesman Juan Bautista Dominguez said that, "Too many of these policies lead to more guns in school and that isn't the answer to keeping our children safe."
Abbott said that some of the recommendations have no cost, but called for a $120 million state commitment, including $10,000 in matching grants for schools _ which may be paired with federal monies _ so that schools will not have to bear an undue financial burden.
A subsequent release from the governor's office said the recommendations identify nearly $110 million in total funding, including $70 million that is either already available or soon will be, and another $30 million that he will seek from the Legislature when it next meets.
Abbott said that Santa Fe survivors and their families had highlighted the need for more teachers to be armed in the schools and that training to that end will begin this summer. Schools will not be mandated to arm any teachers.
"No one provided a more powerful voice than the victims themselves," Abbott said, who said he had met and talked with many Texas school shooting victims and family members of victims.
The governor quoted one Santa Fe senior who, he said, spoke for many Santa Fe students and parents when she said, "Arming teachers, and not knowing who is armed, that is what we need."
His plan calls for increasing the numbers of school marshals by funding training this summer that would focus on firearms proficiency.
"We all want action to make sure we do not see a repetition of what happened at Santa Fe High School," Abbott said.
Treading on the most volatile terrain in the school shooting debate, Abbott said, "I doubt that there has been a governor of Texas with a more pro-gun record than myself."
But he said he wanted to see the state's firearms storage law changed to include 17-year-olds, the age of the Santa Fe shooter. Current law requires gun owners to securely store their firearms to keep them out of the hands of those under 17.
He also called for an effort to encourage, but not mandate, the use of gun locks by creating a $1 million grant program with funds from the Governor's Criminal Justice Division.
The governor's proposals follow and are informed by three days of roundtable discussions the governor led last week at the Capitol that yielded more than 100 recommendations from educators, law enforcement officers, security experts, politicians and survivors of the shootings in Santa Fe and at First Baptist Church of Sutherland Springs near San Antonio in November.
Abbott presented his proposals in front of phalanx of more than a dozen news cameras in a small third-floor conference room of the Dallas Independent School District Headquarters. From Dallas, the governor was headed to San Marcos to talk about his proposals at another news conference at the Hays County Law Enforcement Center.
The plan also calls for mental health evaluations to identify and help students at risk of harming others, providing schools with behavioral threat assessment programs, expanding counseling, expanding a program that encourages anonymous tips about potentially dangerous students, and monitoring social media for potential threats.
Abbott was introduced at the news conference by Dallas school Superintendent Michael Hinojosa, who participated in last week's discussions, who saluted Abbott for his swift, hands-on leadership on the issues.
"Schools should be safe," Hinojosa said. "Parents should not have to sorry about sending their children to school."
But Hinojosa said that arming teachers is not something he or his board would support, and while it might make sense in some rural schools, it wouldn't make sense in Dallas.
"We have many other avenues to keep our students safe," he said.
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