Oklahoma House and Senate vote to set aside $50 million per year for school safety while Principal Kirk Moore is praised for his actions demonstrated during a school shooting.
On April 7, suspect and former student Victor Hawkins brought a gun and violent intentions to Pauls Valley High School, located in Pauls Valley, Oklahoma. The shooter was stopped by Principal Kirk Moore, who managed to tackle and pin Hawkins to a bench after his gun malfunctioned, allowing for another employee to take the weapon away. Moore received a gunshot wound to the leg during the attack, the only injury from the shooting, but has since been released from the hospital.
Hawkins told investigators on the day of the shooting that he had planned to kill students, faculty and himself when he arrived at the school.
He specifically stated that he wanted to kill the school’s principal and compared his planned shooting to the 1999 Columbine School Shooting in Columbine, Colorado. The Columbine shooting is known to be one of the deadliest in U.S. history, with it having the third largest death toll for a K-12 school as 13 students and one faculty member were killed while 23 people were injured before the two perpetrators killed themselves. This attack led to many other copycats similar to the one at Pauls Valley High School. Yet Hawkins was in police custody within five minutes of the attack, leaving the school with just one injury and no one dead.
Since the attack, Moore has been praised as a hero both by his local community and state politicians alike. Oklahoma House Speaker Rep. Kyle Hilbert stated, “I cannot say enough good things about what that man did, and we should praise him, and we should be telling his story from the rooftops for a long time.” In addition to Hilbert, various senators and the Pauls Valley mayor spoke highly of his actions during the shooting with Mayor Jocelyn Rushing saying, “He’s a fine man who loves the students and is willing to go out of his way to ensure their safety, and that was proven today by the steps that he took.”
Since the shooting, the Oklahoma House and Senate voted for a continuation of funding Student Resources Officers for schools. Three years ago, $150 million was allocated towards school safety across three years, or $50 million per year. Now, they have voted to make this funding permanent. “It was very, very beneficial to the smaller schools where the money they received was a bigger portion of their budget,” said President Pro Tempore Lonnie Paxton.
Senate Bill 1189, which will allocate the funding, was proposed by Senator Adam Pugh in Oct. 2025. The money set aside for this bill can be used to hire school resources officers, upgrade security equipment and implement local safety initiatives, bettering the protection given to both the faculty and students at Oklahoman schools.
The original legislation allowed for about $285,000 to be given to each district to allow for the hiring of a school resource officer, something that will likely be carried over in the new legislation. The bill is intended to be effective as of July 1, 2026, but is still waiting on a signature from the governor to be passed.
