Santa Fe High School senior Bree Butler, center, goes to embrace March for Our Lives member Madie Lake.
In a CityCentre conference room far removed from the site of last week’s deadly shooting, Santa Fe High School students briefed the press on moderate school-safety measures as part of a reform bill proposed along with March For Our Lives Houston and undisclosed state representatives.
What they divulged of the bill: It will propose "locker laws" to require firearms be secured inside people's homes, as well as mental health reforms that involve evaluations of gun owners and their families, but it will not mention assault rifles or limits on magazines.
While prominent March for Our Lives activists such as Emma González and others have reached out to the Santa Fe survivors to show support, it’s fairly clear the response from the rural Texas community will differ greatly from the aftermath of the Parkland shooting. There is a shared push for change, and the presiding mission of these survivors is to stop school shootings from happening again, but the means of attaining these goals, as of today’s press conference, reveal a deep chasm.
As to what those differences are, students would not talk about or answer questions regarding the actual shooting or their community’s reaction to it—perhaps out of reverence for their own families, which might swing Republican and pro-gun. Both Butler and junior Megan McGuire said they’d grown up safely in gun-owning households where firearms were locked away. They also both grew up in the post-Columbine age of school shootings. “It’s always been in the back of my mind,” said Butler.
In February, days after the Parkland shooting, both were at Santa Fe High School when it went on lockdown for four hours after popping sounds were heard near campus. Butler described lying with a friend pressed against her, a textbook hugged close to his body.
Just a week later, at least seven Houston-area schools have been threatened with guns, according to the Houston Chronicle, and the parents of a deceased Santa Fe student have filed suit against the shooter’s parents for both allowing access to their firearms and failing to obtain proper mental health counseling for their son.
"I'm a strong proponent of all 10 amendments in the Bill of Rights, including the Second Amendment,” added McGuire, who said her father and grandfather are responsible gun owners.
“It makes us feel safer,” McGuire added.
Mental health was a particular emphasis of the students, who rejected statements from the shooter’s parents claiming their son was a victim of bullying. “It shouldn't be, 'Oh he was bullied, he was a victim,'” Butler said, declining to name the assailant. “He's not a victim. He made victims."
Still, the legislative path forward remains unclear. Butler and Rodriguez spoke of meeting with Gov. Greg Abbott's staff, as well as their state representative Larry Taylor’s staff in Austin this week. “They were open to us, and took notes,” Butler noted.
Gov. Abbott did call for Santa Fe students and survivors of the Sutherland Springs church shooting to join him yesterday, along with educators, law enforcement, mental health professionals, and both gun-control and gun-rights groups to discuss school safety measures.
Since Tuesday, state Republicans have called for arming teachers and ramping up school security. Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick came under fire for suggesting schools have “too many entrances and too many exits.” One of Houston’s staunchest gun reform advocates, Police Chief Art Acevedo, was not invited to the roundtable discussions and, since the Santa Fe shooting, has told the NRA, “you are on the wrong side of history,” after the group attacked him for calling on comprehensive gun reform.
Meanwhile, the Santa Fe students spoke broadly of their own reform bill, but declined to disclose a timeline or future actions planned for the summer.
One thing that is known: Santa Fe students will return to school on Tuesday.
“I don’t want that to be the last day I ever stepped foot in my high school,” Butler said, recalling the shooting on Friday, May 18.