Texas schools send parents DNA kits to identify their kids’ bodies in emergencie | Hacker News Reader

Texas schools send parents DNA kits to identify their kids’ bodies in emergencie

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18 pointstwiddling16 comments

I suppose requiring DNA samples from gun owners would not get off the ground in Texas. I'm surprised enough legislators in Texas even believe in DNA because it seems suspiciously like science.

Preparing parents to identify their child's body after the next mass shooting announces a failure of government to protect citizens, one of the fundamental duties of government.

Who knows, maybe having parents do this task will make them re-evaluate their priorities. Instead of thinking about their rights, they might start thinking of outcomes from those rights on a more personal level.

I wish, but I doubt it, and even if parents clamored about protecting their kids the proposals from at least some state governments tend more to the "give all teachers guns" side than to anything resembling gun control.

I know I wouldn't have felt very safe in school if I knew the teachers had weapons. I saw plenty of teachers melt down at school, including threatening and striking kids, especially in high school. Remember when "going postal" was a thing? Do you suppose public school teachers endure as much stress as postal workers?

I was never too worried about school shootings when I had young kids, but I homeschooled them most of their school years. Not out of fear. Then when my oldest daughter was at college I saw on the news an active shooter at the school she attended. It turned out to be a crazy person waving a gun around (no one shot) but scared the hell out of me. When I was in elementary school we did nuclear war drills -- crawl under your desk, know where the nearest fallout shelter is. That threat seems almost comically remote now, compared to the number of people with guns and behavioral disorders among us.

Surely all biological parents' kids could be identified from the parent's DNA? Or failing that, grabbing basically anything from the kids house/room: tooth brush? hairbrush? shoes/socks? these all seem like easy ways to get a DNA sample from a parent for their child.

I guess the fingerprint part might be useful?

Being as they of course "just can't" do anything to stop people from bringing guns into schools -- in a way, this makes a certain kind of sense for them.

I am a limey brit, when I was at school there was another boy with some pretty serious mental health issues, social issues, issues at home. No one bullied him. But I remember watching him and realising there was a non-zero chance he would kill himself that week/month/year. It must be weird being in the US and doing the same sad calculation but adding a "maybe killing us too" factor. Watching him and wondering why he is wearing a long coat on such a warm day etc...

I went to high school in the US in the 1970s. I remember at least three incidents we heard about with students bringing guns to school. No shootings at my school, though. Another school in the same city did have a shooting incident at that time, pissed off student opened fire in shop class.

We (students) knew back then who was disturbed, who would likely carry a gun or knife to school, who might pull a weapon in a cafeteria argument. We all did that "sad calculation" you mention.

When it came time for my own kids to go to school we opted out and homeschooled. Not so much out of fear of mass shootings, but because schools are terrible environments for children in so many ways, and it's easy to do better than what passes for "education" in the US.

Can we please stop with this lazy take? “ID your child in case of bad things” kits and programs have been around since at least the early 90s[1] if not earlier. Blockbuster used to have a program where in addition to fingerprinting your kid, you’d make a video tape about them [2] and school based programs have been around since at least the 80s [3]. This sort of lazy “no one would ever worry about their kids safety if it wasn’t for guns” hot take doesn’t do anything at all to contribute to the general discourse.

[1] https://www.mcgruffsafekit.com/ [2] https://www.latimes.com/archives/la-xpm-1990-08-07-me-81-sto... [3] https://www.nytimes.com/1983/02/22/us/fingerprinting-of-chil...

Looking at the bigger picture - would seem that the Texas state legislature's unwillingness to tackle the issue of overly permissive firearm access is the "lazy take" to be concerned about.

Are they targeting Black and Hispanic kids for future incarceration? Cause that would be my first thought if my kid came home with one.

these are parent cards,they are supposed to be filled out, and kept safe at home.

this is preparation for mass casualty events of all sorts, perhaps even war on US soil.

Yeah sure… this data will total never be abused and used for secondary purposes. We have a history of using womens rape kits against them for gods sake. DNA kits will always be used against you.

this is, according to the article, NOT kept by third party [cops etc], this is filled out and kept by parents, at home.

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