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

Truth Social logo; Donald Trump
Mateusz Slodkowski/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images; Samuel Corum/Getty Images

Trump's Truth Social Platform Has A New AI Tool—And Trump's Not Gonna Like What It Has To Say

President Donald Trump regularly uses his social media platform Truth Social to attack his opponents and lie profusely, but the site's new "Truth Search AI" tool is unlikely to win his favor because it actually—get this—tells the truth about him and his policies.

A test conducted by the center-right news and commentary site The Bulwark found that the tool, which Truth Social debuted shortly after Trump signed an executive order to counter the use of “Woke AI” in the federal government, actually tells the truth about everything from his widely unpopular tariffs to the 2020 election results.

Keep ReadingShow less
Screenshots of Donald Trump and Laura Ingraham in the Oval Office
Fox News

Trump Just Bragged That Everything In The Oval Office Is 'Real Gold'—And Even Laura Ingraham Isn't Buying It

President Donald Trump received a dubious reaction from Fox News personality Laura Ingraham after he touted the Oval Office's gold decor as "real gold" while giving her a tour.

The Oval Office has been significantly revamped since Trump took office in January—it features, among other things, fireplace adorned with gold cherubs and medallions, surrounded by portraits of American statesmen in ornate gold frames and shelves filled with gilded figurines, urns, and freshly installed Rococo mirrors.

Keep ReadingShow less
man giving two thumbs down gesture
Vitaly Gariev on Unsplash

Questions That May Sound Innocent But Are Actually Offensive

Humans in general tend to be curious creatures. We seek information about the world around us.

But sometimes it's best to rein that desire in a bit.

Keep ReadingShow less
Elon Musk; Joyce Carol Oates
Tom Brenner For The Washington Post via Getty Images; Rosdiana Ciaravolo/Getty Images

Elon Musk Rages After Author Joyce Carol Oates Calls Him 'Uneducated' And 'Uncultured' In Epic Takedown

You'd have to be a "chronically online" user of X, aka Twitter, to know just how prolific a tweeter author Joyce Carol Oates is, but to those who are, her takedowns have become legendary.

And recently, the 87-year-old award-winning writer set her sights on the owner of X himself, Elon Musk. And the gazillionaire babyman is FURIOUS about it.

Keep ReadingShow less
Sydney Sweeney channels boxer Christy Martin
Black Bear Pictures

Sydney Sweeney Speaks Out After 'Christy' Biopic Has One Of Worst Box Office Openings Of All Time

Sydney Sweeney can land a punch, but maybe not at the box office. Her latest film, Christy, a biopic about trailblazing boxer Christy Martin, landed a hard blow but barely connected with the audience, opening to a paltry $1.3 million.

That’s not just a loss; it’s a technical knockout in the “worst wide release openings ever” category, according to Box Office Mojo. For films debuting in over 2,000 theaters, Christy ranks at No. 12 overall and No. 9 when excluding rereleases.

Keep ReadingShow less