Make Wilmer-Hutchins school shooting investigation results public

Schools have an impossible task nowadays — they’re not just places to educate children. They’ve become a front line for culture wars and a petri dish for the negative effects of social media on young people. They are also too often vulnerable to gun violence. With Texas’ lack of regulation, it’s hard to say who will bring a gun to campus and jeopardize everyone else’s safety.

Wilmer-Hutchins High School in southeast Dallas was the latest victim nearly two weeks ago. On April 12, one student was shot in the leg, and the suspect, a 17-year-old student, has been taken into custody. We urge Dallas ISD to give the public a full account of the incident because questions are swirling about whether safety protocols were lax or ignored. Understanding what happened will help families know what is actually happening in their kids’ schools, and it will help state legislators better address school shootings.

The shooting is still under investigation, but school officials said that there was a personal dispute between two students before one of them pulled out a gun. Nearly 50 students walked out of class a few days after the shooting to protest what they saw as the school administration’s negligence in keeping them safe. At a community meeting held by school board trustee Maxie Johnson, who represents the district that includes Wilmer-Hutchins High School, students said that while their school does have metal detectors and a clear bag policy, the rules weren’t always enforced.

Every Dallas ISD middle and high school has at least one Dallas ISD police officer on site. Caren Rodriguez, a spokeswoman for Dallas ISD, said that two police officers had been assigned to Wilmer-Hutchins. Considering that the school is supposed to have these officers on deck, it’s unclear whether the school lacks other staff to make sure everyone on campus complies with safety rules.

Learning what specific lapse in protocols led to the gun being brought into school is essential for administrators and state legislators to better address school shootings. Last year, the Legislature passed a law that requires every public school campus to have an armed school marshal on site to keep students safe in case of emergency. For a lot of districts, the law ended up being an underfunded mandate, and they scrambled to train teachers to carry weapons.

Requiring school marshals is an ill-considered band-aid on problems caused by a lack of commonsense gun regulations and declining student mental health. The law did not apply to Dallas ISD because the district already had its own police department. But considering that Wilmer-Hutchins students say that basic security checks weren’t being followed, administrators and state legislators shouldn’t forget those fundamental policies to keep kids safe.

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