TEXAS SCHOOL GUN POLICIES - According to a report by the Associated Press, there are now more than 200 school districts in Texas that have adopted policies allowing staff to carry firearms, a number that spiked in the weeks following a deadly high school shooting in Florida. A spokesman with the Texas Association of School Boards tells the Corpus Christi Caller-Times that as of last month there were 217 districts allowing staff to carry firearms.
That number stood at 172 districts in February, the same month a gunman killed 17 people at a school in Parkland, Florida. The 217 districts represent just over 20 percent of the 1,023 independent school districts in Texas. The Texas Association of Schools suggests the number of schools districts allowing teachers to carry guns "may continue to grow as districts continue to revise policies" in the aftermath of the more recent May 18 shooting at Santa Fe High School near Houston that left 10 people dead.