“It just saddens me that I have to be doing it. It shouldn’t be a thing that you have to do to prepare to go back to school,” Cassie Walton tells Inside Edition. A Texas school superintendent preps for the first day of school with shooting practice.
Across America, parents are getting jitters about sending their kids back to school following a string of mass shootings, including the Uvalde elementary school massacre in May.
The mom of 5-year-old Weston Walton is giving him active shooter training before his first day of school in Oklahoma. Cassie Walton is also sending him to school with a bulletproof Spider-Man backpack.
Video taken by the mom shows the boy demonstrating how he uses it to shield his body.
“It just saddens me that I have to be doing it. It shouldn’t be a thing that you have to do to prepare to go back to school,” Cassie said.
In Harrold, Texas, district school superintendent Cody Patton practiced shooting at a gun range to prepare for the first day of school. He and about half the teachers at the K-12 school carry guns.
“My biggest fear is having someone come on this campus and shoot one of my children here at this school,” Patton said.
The school also has 79 cameras placed around campus, and an app tells teachers if a stranger enters the school building.
If there is ever a shooter at the school, Patton says his staff know exactly what to do — “Shoot ‘em immediately.”
At least 29 states allow individuals other than police or security officials to carry guns on school grounds.
