What the Denton community is doing to curb gun violence in the wake of Uvalde

At 6 years old, Jessica Rekos wanted a new cowgirl hat and cowgirl boots like the ones Santa had brought her last Christmas. She loved the boots even though her little feet couldn’t fit into them because Santa had gotten her the wrong size.

She started riding horses when she was 5 and told her parents she planned to “ride forever.” It probably wasn’t that much of a surprise, given that she was always reading books and watching movies about horses and whales. Her parents had promised to buy her a horse when she turned 10 years old.

How could they not? She had earned a blue ribbon at her first horse show earlier that year. She wore that ribbon proudly and showed it to everyone at Target shortly after the horse show. In a photograph posted on her website, she sits atop the horse, holding the reins like an expert in a black jacket and black helmet, her brown hair in a braid and a smile full of life as she looks over her shoulder at the camera.

Her riding dreams ended when a shooter entered her first grade classroom and shot 155 rounds in less than five minutes, according to a May 28, 2013, MSNBC report, and killed Rekos and 19 of her 6- and 7-year-old peers in 2012 at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, Connecticut. Six adults — teachers and staff members — were also killed.

Ten years later, their stories echo like voices from beyond the grave on social media feeds as the community, journalists and news outlets share stories of the 19 children who were slaughtered Tuesday in Uvalde when an 18-year-old shooter entered their fourth grade classroom and opened fire. Two teachers were also killed.

The Naval Postgraduate School’s Center for Homeland Defense and Security found that 948 school shootings have taken place in the decade since Sandy Hook. Several were committed by a person who obtained their firearms legally but couldn’t buy alcohol or tobacco products because they were under 21. Since January, 27 school shootings have occurred.

In Denton and beyond, the debate over what to do continues to rage on social media a few days after Tuesday’s tragedy. The left: stricter gun control like banning AR-15s and other military-style rifles, red flag laws and universal background checks. The right: arming teachers, fortifying schools like prisons and implementing a heavier police presence, though a squad of armed officers waited nearly an hour outside the school before an armed tactical team entered to engage the shooter, NPR reported Friday.

Experts and social media commentators have weighed in, and all seem to echo a similar consensus: The government didn’t pass any meaningful gun-related legislation after Rekos and her peers were slaughtered at Sandy Hook Elementary, so don’t expect any meaningful change with the 19 children slaughtered at Robb Elementary.

And while the left and the right continue to battle over what should be done, the Center for American Progress, an independent, nonpartisan policy institute, has come up with several community-driven initiatives that can be done at the local level to address gun violence. Some of these initiatives are already unfolding in Denton, according to the Denton Police Department.

Denton Mayor Gerard Hudspeth didn’t respond to requests for an interview, but he did post a statement to his Facebook page.

“My family and I are shaken and grieve for every family and life forever changed by this act of violence (Uvalde, TX),” the mayor wrote. “I pray for the families and I pray for wisdom to make the right decisions to keep Denton safe. I’ve been in regular communication with the City Manager and our County, State and Federal officials.

“The city manager has been in contact with Denton ISD, to make sure they have everything they need.

“City Management and staff are drafting a resolution of support on behalf of the Council to send to the City of Uvalde.

“Any time a senseless act of violence occurs, it has a widespread impact and invokes feelings of grief, confusion, and fear. Per Denton Police Department Facebook Page. I want to work to organize discussions to hear and address the communities concerns.

“I have an will continue to stress the need to focus on local safety and local issues,” Hudspeth concluded. “Health and safety are two of the city council’s primary responsibilities and we must continue to work to keep our community safe.”

Former mayoral candidate Paul Meltzer also provided his thoughts on the Uvalde aftermath.

“Like many, I’m beyond frustrated by the inaction or even overtly harmful actions of our legislature in the face of gun violence,” he said in a Friday email. “Still there are things we can continue to do at the community level to at least not feel helpless about it, from protecting and supporting survivors of gun violence to providing guidance for safe firearm storage.”

Denton Police Chief Frank Dixon said the Police Department “shares in the concerns of our community, as we mourn the horrific events in Uvalde.”

“As spouses and parents ourselves, our hearts break,” Dixon said. “As a law enforcement leader, I am reminded of why we have invested in improved training, including tabletop and scenario-based exercises. We have also dedicated resources to training segments of our community on how to respond to active attacks should there be one at your place of employment, religious service, or educational institution.

“We will continue partnering with the Denton Independent School District to look at preventative programming, such as violence intervention and responsive planning, training and tools,” the chief said. “We know that we cannot do it alone – it will take our community working as one, because we are better together.”

A history of initiatives in Denton

Shortly after the Sandy Hook mass shooting in late 2012, Denton County school districts such as Argyle began holding meetings to discuss hiring a school resource officer and possibly arming teachers, the Denton Record-Chronicle reported in 2013.

For several years, Denton police held a faith-based crime prevention conference for church security. In December 2017, Denton police Officer Shane Kizer hosted a “What to do in case of a mass shooter” seminar shortly after the shooting at First Baptist Church in Sutherland Springs that left 26 people dead — including an unborn child — and 22 others wounded. The shooter was prohibited from having a weapon due to a domestic violence charge, and yet the FBI’s National Crime Information Center database, which gun dealers use for background checks, didn’t have that information, according to a 2017 New York Times report.

“Failure to act is the worst thing you can do,” Kizer told the crowd. “… It is very unlikely that you will have one of these events at your place of worship, very unlikely. But that being said, I think that this is the sign of the times. We’re going to see more and more of this happening. It’s too easy to go somewhere, plan something and wreak havoc in America, unfortunately. We’re just not prepared for it.”

Six months later, Denton County first responders modified their active shooter strategy as schools began discussing mental health, the Record-Chronicle reported in 2018. They were responding to the Sante Fe High School mass shooting that left eight students and two teachers dead about a week earlier.

Former Lewisville Fire Chief Tim Tittle, according to the 2018 report, was trying to keep county agencies talking about active shooter scenarios by hosting monthly meetings at Lewisville’s Jerry R. Galler Public Safety Training Center.

“We’re all pretty much playing by the same playbook, with just a few tweaks across the bigger cities,” Tittle told the Record-Chronicle in 2018. “And smaller cities don’t really have a playbook, so this is part of helping them develop a plan.”

Though Denton police no longer hold the annual training, Denton does have a community resource officer, Gina Whitson, who will meet with individual organizations to discuss their plans and present the ALERRT Center at Texas State University’s Civilian Response to Active Shooter Events training, Denton police spokesperson Amy Cunningham said in a Friday morning email.

In a Friday morning phone call with the Denton police, Deputy Chief Frank Padgett discussed the Crisis Intervention Response Team, also known as CIRT. Created a couple of years ago, the team is headed up by a police sergeant and a master social worker and pairs four patrol officers, who are certified mental health peace officers, with four mental health clinicians who respond to calls for people who are experiencing a mental health crisis.

After the initial police report is taken, Padgett said the team will follow up to make sure the person receives the help needed.

“Just the number of reports that patrol takes has skyrocketed,” he said.

During the first seven months of CIRT’s operations, they assigned 814 cases, completed 169 emergency detention orders, conducted 1,487 follow-ups and answered 882 calls for overall service for mental health and suicidal persons, according to data provided by Denton police.

So far this year, from January until April 30, officers have taken 576 mental health reports for the crisis team to follow up on.

Denton police also have increased patrols in areas around Denton where aggravated assaults and shootings have occurred, specifically in the 2400 block of East McKinney Street, 5300 block of East McKinney and 1800 and 1900 blocks of North Ruddell Street, Police Chief Dixon wrote in a May 18 report to city officials. They’ve arrested 253 offenders on felony offenses, including murder, rape, robbery, aggravated assault, burglary, weapons charges and felony-level narcotics and recovered 166 firearms so far this year.

Dixon also pointed out that they have partnered with the University of North Texas to bring in additional resources to work alongside their Crime Analysis Unit.

A few years ago, Denton police added a lieutenant to the student resource officer team to help improve communication between themselves and the school district to keep schools safe. There’s an app called StopIt that teachers and parents can use to report concerns anonymously. Padgett said police are in constant contact with school officials whenever they receive information about a threat and sometimes will work until 2 a.m. to get to the bottom of it.

“We investigate every threat as a serious threat,” he said.

As for domestic violence issues, Padgett said police have two victim advocates who work closely with family services detectives and an advocate from Denton County Friends of the Family. They’re also in the process of creating a Family Justice Center in the next five years. It’s kind of a one-stop shop where victims can go and receive help from advocates and family services detectives.

The police also have implemented Project Child Safe and given out gun locks to anyone who wants one. Padgett said they’ve distributed hundreds of thousands of gun locks.

“If somebody is experiencing crisis,” he said, “we will always store people’s firearms as long as they need us to do so.”

Curbing gun violence

Yet, more can be done to address gun violence.

Texas Gun Sense, a bipartisan nonprofit organization founded 10 years ago by the survivors of the Virginia Tech mass shooting, has been working for years to bring sensible measures to the state Legislature to curb gun violence.

Of course, their advocates’ demands “have fallen on deaf ears,” Nicole Golden, the executive director of Texas Gun Sense, pointed out in a May 24 news release.

“We are tired, and we are angry,” Golden said in the release. “I think of my own kids at school today and cannot process the grief that I imagine the families of Uvalde are experiencing tonight. The State Legislature has failed us through their unwillingness to enact meaningful change to prevent senseless shootings — those that hit daily news headlines and the everyday gun deaths that don’t.

“But make no mistake: Our movement is strong, the data is on our side, and we won’t give up. We will fight more fiercely than ever to be a voice for the policy change and culture change that our children and communities deserve.”

In an interview with the Record-Chronicle, Golden said most of the bills Texas Gun Sense has had introduced at the Legislature never make it out of committee. Instead, the organization has watched legislators further weaken our gun laws in Texas.

But Golden is hopeful this time will be different.

“Mental health support in schools is critical,” she said.

In the meantime, the Center for American Progress recommends cities and counties consider the following six community-led initiatives:

• Address gun violence with racial equity and trauma-informed solutions. Gun violence affects every community differently and disproportionately affects Black and Hispanic communities. The root causes of gun violence must be addressed to solve this issue.
• Improve data collection and reporting. Insufficient data result in challenges in accurately demonstrating the crisis of gun violence.
• Protect and support survivors of domestic violence. Investments in domestic violence services and strong firearm surrender protocols for abusers are necessary to protect survivors.
• Partner with schools and school boards. Schools play a pivotal part in addressing gun violence among youth. Bringing gun violence prevention conversations and safe storage education into schools can help keep students safe.
• Create offices of gun violence prevention. A gun violence prevention office — or offices of violence prevention (OVPs) — within state and local government would offer coordinated efforts for the distribution of resources for violence-reduction strategies.
• Provide and promote guidance for safe storage of firearms in the home. Every year, children and others access unsecured guns in the home, causing death, injury and theft. Safe storage guidelines greatly reduce the risk of unwanted access to firearms.
• Provide facilities where veterans and others in crisis can temporarily store their firearms in moments of crisis. Every year, thousands of veterans lose their lives to gun suicides. Establishing areas where they can safely store their firearms in moments of crisis is crucial.