Less than a month into the new school year, Arlington Heights High School in Fort Worth has joined a growing list of North Texas schools facing safety concerns.
On Tuesday, Fort Worth police arrested a 16-year-old student after discovering a firearm in his possession. This incident follows recent campus threats in Southlake and East Dallas.
Arlington Heights Principal Justin Barrett informed parents via email that the situation unfolded after “reports of suspicious activity” led to a search of the school’s restroom. Officers, including a school resource officer, detected the smell of marijuana, which prompted them to investigate the student further, according to a report by KERA News. The student, whose identity has not been released, was found with a firearm and taken into custody.
“The local police are actively investigating the situation and have assured us that there is no ongoing threat to the safety of our students and staff,” Barrett said, per KERA.
This marked the third reported campus security incident in North Texas since the academic school year began.
In response to the increasing incidents, Texas lawmakers have tried to enact several measures to boost school safety, including mandatory armed security at every campus and improved mental health support counseling systems.
The tragic 2022 Uvalde school shooting was a catalyst for some of these new changes, prompting both state and federal actions to address gun violence in schools.
As previously reported by The Dallas Express, as Texas’ new law on school security was implemented in 2023, Mesquite ISD approved a two-year agreement with L&P Global Security to provide armed security guards across all 34 of its elementary schools.
Previously, only the high schools and middle schools in Mesquite ISD had armed security personnel.
According to a report by the American College of Surgeons, school shootings have surged dramatically over the past 53 years, with incidents increasing more than 12-fold through May 2022.
In 2023, a record-high 346 school shooting incidents occurred in the United States, averaging almost one per day, per U.S. News & World Report.
California and Ohio led with 25 incidents each, while Texas had 23. These events resulted in 248 victims nationwide, excluding the shooters, with Texas reporting the highest number of casualties at 21.