El Paso students share their concerns following school shooting in Santa Fe, TX
Friday’s deadly school shooting at a high school in Santa Fe, TX has high school students in El Paso more worried than ever before.
Just three months following the school shooting in Florida, students at Hanks High School tell ABC-7 they were shocked to learn of another shooting.
Most of the students say they learned of the shooting through social media.
What concerned them the most is that Friday’s shooting happened in Texas and it has them thinking more about the possibility of a school shooting happening in El Paso.
“I have it in the back of my mind,” Hanks freshman, Martha Acosta said. “There’s always that moment that someone can come in and instantly end your friends’ and your life.”
Some students, like Hanks freshman, Isabella Vega are now thinking twice about whether they want to go back to school at all.
“It’s getting closer and closer to the point that maybe I wouldn’t even want to show up to school one day because somebody is going to come and do that here,” Vega said.
Students told ABC-7 that at times they don’t feel safe at school and that the district should do more to ensure their safety.
“I could feel safer,” Hanks freshman, Joshua Mendoza said. “It makes me feel a little more scared since the security around the school is so far apart that if it did happen it would be hard to keep us safe.”
A Ysleta School District spokesman told ABC-7 that each of their high schools has 7 armed officers with the El Paso Police Department.
The Socorro and El Paso School districts each have their own police department and all of their officers who are assigned to high schools are also armed.
Hanks parent Victoria Fernandez also believes that schools should do more to protect its students, but that parents should also be involved.
“Talk to your kids,” Fernandez said. “Just talk to your kids and be aware of your surroundings and if you see anything that’s going to happen just make sure your child goes to a teacher, a counselor or security.”
