Today, Governor Greg Abbott announced the Governor’s Public Safety Office was providing $1.25 million to the Uvalde Consolidated Independent School District. Uvalde is located west of San Antonio. The money will be used for counseling, crisis intervention, trauma-informed care, and community outreach for those involved in the May 24 shooting.
This funding comes shortly after councilmen asked for the Governor to raise the age limit for use of automatic rifles previously mentioned here.
For the Uvalde funds, Abbott said:
“As the community of Uvalde continues to heal, Texas continues working to help improve security and aid in the recovery among students and educators. This new source of funding will provide critical support to students, staff, and faculty in Uvalde as they continue to process the trauma from that day and grieve for the innocent lives lost. Working together, the Uvalde CISD will be better equipped to offer the assistance and resources the community needs to heal.”
Since the attacks, Governor Abbott has provided these initiatives for the community:
- Initiate the State of Texas’ comprehensive plan to assist and support members of the community and co-locate state agency representatives to the Family Assistance Center to find benefits.
- Invest $5 million to establish a long-term Family Resiliency Center in Uvalde County to serve as a hub for community services and access to critical mental health resources.
- Work with the OneStar Foundation to create a website for donations to support the victims’ families, teachers, and the Uvalde community.
- Direct the Health and Human Services Commission (HHSC) to ensure children in Uvalde have access to behavioral health resources and support.
- Provide Uvalde and Texas schools with $105.5 million to enhance school safety and mental health services.
- Issue a disaster declaration to accelerate all available resources to assist the Uvalde community.
- Request Texas legislative leaders to form committees to begin examining and developing legislative recommendations on school safety, mental health, social media, police training, firearm safety, and more.
- Direct the Texas School Safety Center to conduct comprehensive school safety reviews to ensure all Texas public schools are following the procedures to maximize school safety.
- Direct the Texas Education Agency (TEA) to provide strategies to make Texas public schools safer through heightened safety standards.
- Instruct the Advanced Law Enforcement Rapid Response Training programs to provide training to all school districts across the state, prioritizing school-based law enforcement.
- Direct TEA, the Texas Higher Education Coordinating Board, and the Department of Public Safety to accelerate the ability to report suspicious activity through the iWatchTexas reporting system.
- Direct TEA to create a new Chief of School Safety and Security position within the agency.
Recently, the Ross Elementary School principal was placed on administrative leave as further investigations continue to see if she neglected to make repairs to help prevent the incident.
Is this enough to help the families and students of Uvalde after the mass shooting?