HOUSTON, May 30 (Xinhua) -- Governor of Texas Greg Abbott on Wednesday unveiled School and Firearm Safety Action Plan, involving millions of U.S. dollars of funding aimed at improving school safety across the State of Texas.
The plan contains 40 recommendations and includes proposals calling for increasing law enforcement presence at schools, strengthening existing campus security programs, enhancing firearm safety, and providing mental health evaluations that identify students at risk of harming others, among other things.
The recommendations identify some 110 million dollars in total funding, including 70 million dollars that is already or will soon be available to begin the work. The governor will have to work with Texas Legislature to fund 30 million dollars of that total.
"This plan is a starting point, not an ending place," Abbott said in remarks carried by a press release. "It provides strategies that can be used before the next school year begins to keep our students safe when they return to school. This plan will make our schools safer and our communities safer."
On May 18, nine students and one teacher were killed and another 10 wounded when a shooter opened fire inside Santa Fe High School southeast of Houston, the largest city in the state.
During a press briefing following the shooting, Abbott described the shooting one of the most "hideous attacks" that has ever happened in the history of Texas schools.
In November 2017, a gunman barged into a church and murdered 26 people in Sutherland Springs, also in Texas.
