Santa Fe High School shooting survivor wants training for substitute teachers
SANTA FE, Texas (KTRK) -- A substitute teacher wounded during the Santa Fe High School shooting is on a mission to make sure substitutes across the state are properly prepared for active shooter situations.
Currently, there are no statewide training requirements for substitutes in Texas. Districts make their own policies. Santa Fe shooting survivor Flo Rice is pushing to change that.
"I honestly did not even know what the protocol was for an active shooter," Rice said.
Rice was one of more than a dozen substitute teachers at Santa Fe High School the day of the horrific mass shooting.
Unlike the full-time teachers, the subs didn't have keys to lock their classrooms.
"Parents are under the impression that when a substitute is there, their children are equally protected as if a teacher is there, and they're not. They are not safe," Rice said.
Some didn't know even how to use the school phone system to call 9-1-1.
Rice was shot 5 times.
As she recovers and gets stronger, her voice is growing louder.
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She's reaching out to lawmakers and proposing a bill to ensure Texas school districts give substitutes and full-time teachers the same training.
State Representative Dr. Greg Bonnen has already started the process of drafting legislation to make sure every adult inside a school is prepared to respond to an active shooter.
"Mrs. Rice and many others like her are taking their loss and using it to make positive change so that other people don't have to experience and walk down the path that they're walking down," said Dr. Bonnen.
Of the three substitute teachers shot on May 18, Rice was the only one to survive.
She says since Cynthia Tisdale and Ann Perkins can't weigh in, it's her duty to speak up for them.
"I survived just by the grace of God, so I feel like it's on my heart now that I try to do something about it," Rice said.
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