TEXAS — School shootings in 2020-21 are at their highest in two decades, according to the National Center for Education Statistics. With that uptick in violence and the fears that come with it, a lot of Texas parents are wondering how to best protect their kids while helping them to learn and grow.

It’s a challenge Texas parent Shantel Chester has faced several times in her life. Chester moved her family from Florida to Texas in 2015 to escape the violence she endured as a child.

“I would always hear gunshots as a little girl. It was crazy,” Chester said.

Chester says she’s scared to send her young daughters back to school just a few months after the mass shooting at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, Texas. The massacre happened less than two hours away from her home.

“I remember just being scared, praying that it wasn’t my kid's school. I was just terrified. No parent wants to send their kids to school and then get a phone call that your kid's not coming back home. No parent on this Earth wants that to happen,” Chester said.

Austin father Verlon Smith agrees, but says he believes school shootings aren’t common enough to cause widespread panic.

“School shootings are mathematically rare. You can’t live in fear of it and you have to get your child the best education you can,” Smith said.

While Texas is the second-most populous state, according to the U.S. Census Bureau, it leads the country in the number of school shootings. Of the 540 school shootings nationwide from 2012 to present, data from the Center for Homeland Defense and Security shows 43 of those happened in Texas. One of the most recent, in Uvalde, left 19 children and two adults dead.

Texas schools are taking some new security measures after the tragedy in Uvalde, like requiring districts to conduct weekly inspections of exterior doors on all campuses, urging school leaders to hire more trained law enforcement and school marshals and earmarking $100,000,000 in grants to pay for security measures to further “harden” our schools. But these measures don’t address gun reform and won’t be fully implemented by the time Chester’s children return to the classroom.

“As a mom, I’m pretty much sending my kids to school with a system that’s still in the works, and for me, it doesn’t make me feel safe,” Chester said.

Smith says he believes the heart of the issue isn’t school safety, but mental health. “We do have a mental health problem in this country in a lot of ways and we don’t address it properly," he said. 

One thing these two parents agree on is that children should be able to learn in a safe environment. Licensed psychologist and trauma expert Dr. Bob Geffner says that’s an important goal, but not one we can always control.

“What Uvalde did was it really brought it home that this can happen anywhere," said Dr. Geffner.

He recommends talking to kids about their concerns, asking school leaders about their campus safety plan and joining a parent support group. He says these three things will help parents feel more at ease about matters they can’t control.

“Once people start verbalizing their fears and talking openly, it’s not as scary or traumatic," Dr. Geffner said.