'It was like talking to a toddler': Trump 'kept mentioning' arming teachers in meeting with Texas school shooting survivors

President meets with family members of school shooting victims

President Donald Trump speaks to the media before boarding Air Force One for a trip to Texas to meet with families of the Santa Fe school shooting victims (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

The mother of a Texas school shooting victim has said Donald Trump would not stop talking about arming teachers in a meeting with the families of those killed.

Mr Trump met with about two dozen people affected by the shooting in Houston on Thursday, in between two big-dollar fundraisers in the area.

Rhonda Hart, who lost her 14-year-old daughter, Kimberly Vaughan, in the shooting, told the Associated Press that Mr Trump repeatedly brought up his proposal to arm school teachers during the meeting.

Ms Hart said she suggested employing veterans to stand guard at schools, to which Mr Trump replied: “And arm them?”

Though she responded “No,” to the suggestion, Ms Hart said, the president “kept mentioning” the idea.

“It was like talking to a toddler,” she said.

Eight students and two teachers were killed in the shooting at Santa Fe High School earlier this month – the deadliest since the shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas in Parkland, Florida, which prompted mass calls for gun reform.

Mr Trump flirted briefly with instituting comprehensive background checks and raising the minimum age for gun purchases after the Parkland shooting. But he has since returned to the idea of arming teachers – a plan he said would allow educators to “immediately fire back if a savage sicko came to a school with bad intentions”.

Texas Governor Greg Abbott – who Mr Trump met in Texas on Thursday – has expressed support for the idea, as well as for seizing firearms from the mentally ill. The idea is also supported by the National Rifle Association (NRA), and some school teachers, but has been heavily criticised by the National Education Association and other experts.

Mr Trump was last in Texas to speak at the NRA convention, where he declared that gun rights would “never, ever be under siege as long as I’m your president”.

At least one parent at Thursday’s meeting praised Mr Trump’s demeanour, writing on Facebook that he “met with us privately and showed sincerity, compassion, and concern on making our schools safer across the nation”.

“He spent time talking to the survivors and asking on what happened and what would have made a difference,” wrote Pamela Stanich, whose 17-year-old son, Jared Black, was among those killed. “Changes are coming for the good. Thank you Mr Trump.”

Mr Trump’s school safety commission, which he convened in response to the Parkland shooting, also met on Thursday outside Washington. Education Secretary Betsy DeVos, who heads the commission, announced a $1m grant for the Santa Fe school district that day.

“This critical funding will help provide resources to respond, recover and re-establish safe environments for students,” she wrote on Twitter. “We remain in frequent contact with state and local education leaders in Texas as they assess their needs in the wake of this tragedy.”