More than 200 Texas districts let school staff carry guns

AUSTIN, Texas (AP) — There are now more than 200 school districts in Texas that have adopted policies allowing staff to carry firearms, a number that spiked in the weeks following a deadly high school shooting in Florida.

Dax González with the Texas Association of School Boards tells the Corpus Christi Caller-Times that as of last month there were 217 districts allowing staff to carry weapons.

That number stood at 172 districts in February, the same month a gunman killed 17 people at a school in Parkland, Florida.

González says the number "may continue to grow as districts continue to revise policies" in the aftermath of the May 18 shooting at Santa Fe High School near Houston that left 10 dead.

The 217 districts represent just over 20 percent of the independent school districts in Texas.