Schools in Texas are providing parents with free DNA and fingerprint identification kits, as part of a program to help identify missing children.

While the law that created the program does not say that the kits are to help identify children’s bodies after a school shooting, that hasn’t stopped some parents from drawing a link between the two. This story has now spurred national coverage and viral online outrage over a program created with little fanfare over a year ago, including from parents whose children were killed in school shootings.

“Yeah! Awesome! Let’s identify kids after they’ve been murdered instead of fixing issues that could ultimately prevent them from being murdered,” Brett Cross, whose child, Uziyah Garcia, was killed in the Robb Elementary school shooting in Uvalde, Texas, said on Twitter.

The initiative—and its rollout—offer some important lessons for policymakers and school district leaders, said Kenneth Trump, a nationally-recognized school safety expert.

Policymakers and district leaders need to be attuned to how parents are going to receive this information, said Trump, especially just five months after […]