Woman arrested at HISD meeting says board has lost her trust
After being thrown out of a Houston ISD special board meeting, arrested and forced to spend a night in the Harris County Jail, Kandice Webber said Wednesday she has lost all trust in Texas’ largest school district.
Webber, an organizer with Houston Black Lives Matter who has a granddaughter preparing to enter HISD as a kindergartener, said she wants more than apologies from Houston ISD and Board President Rhonda Skillern-Jones. She and another woman dragged out of the meeting called for Skillern-Jones to resign.
“You’ve already had me drug out of a room for just voicing my absolute God-given right as an American citizen,” Webber said Wednesday. “You’ve already shown your hand at how you treat us. So, now I don’t trust you, and I have every reason not to.”
A special board meeting held Tuesday dissolved into chaos after Skillern-Jones ordered officers to remove a woman who spoke 14 seconds longer than her one-minute allotment during public comments. When audience members jeered the move, Skillern-Jones ordered officers to clear the room.
Three women were detained after they refused to move from their seats.
Jenny Espeseth, who has two children in HISD, was dragged out of the room and down a hallway by two officers before she was released minutes later.
Webber and another woman were taken to the Harris County Jail after both were charged with misdemeanor criminal trespassing and resisting arrest, according to HISD. Both women spent the night in jail before HISD’s police department and Harris County District Attorney Kim Ogg decided to drop the charges Wednesday.
Following Tuesday’s meeting, interim HISD Police Chief Paul Cordova said the two individuals arrested were “actively resisting the officers physically.” A woman who was detained but not arrested “wasn’t kicking or hitting, so we decided to go ahead and release that person,” Cordova said. Board president ‘saddened’
In a statement Wednesday, Skillern-Jones said she decided to clear the room after numerous outbursts and vocalizations from the audience during public comments.
“I hoped we could calm the tension and return for an orderly meeting,” Skillern-Jones said. “Unfortunately, the situation escalated and subsequently caused many unintended consequences.
“I'm saddened at this outcome as it was not at all what I wanted,” the statement continued. “I take responsibility for calling this recess and am regretful it only created more discord. The one positive result from the chaos is that we did postpone a hasty decision, gained some additional perspective and broadened our considerations.”
The district announced Wednesday that it will not pursue any partnerships in a bid to stave off state sanctions that could include a takeover of the district or the closure of 10 underperforming schools. Instead, the district said it would continue its existing efforts to turn around the schools labeled by the Texas Education Agency as needing improvement for at lest four straight years.
The 10 underperforming schools are: Kashmere, Wheatley and Worthing high schools; Henry Middle School; Woodson PK-8; and Blackshear, Dogan, Highland Heights, Mading and Wesley elementary schools. All of those campuses serve predominately black and Latino student populations in high-poverty neighborhoods.
Espeseth, who was dragged out of Tuesday’s meeting but was released outside the auditorium, said she heard several trustees promise they would not vote to partner with charter groups to keep the 10 schools opened. When the district announced it had scheduled a Tuesday vote on whether to partner with charter school operator Energized for STEM Academy, she said she felt misled.
“I heard with my own ears various trustees tell the communities they were not going to charter the schools,” Espeseth said. “I heard that I don’t even know how many times.” Poor job of explaining
Jay Aiyer, assistant professor of public policy and political science at Texas Southern University, said the board of trustees has done a poor job explaining the district’s predicament and keeping the public informed of their decision-making processes related to partnerships and potential school closures. The district and trustees held 11 community meetings in neighborhoods where the 10 schools are located, but officials largely kept quiet over the past two months while trying to find potential partners to run the 10 schools.
“My biggest criticism is they tend to hold their cards too close to their vest with more of a desire to present things as a finished plan,” Aiyer said. “I know it’s a more difficult process to be open and transparent and to let people have input in front end. But in the long term it’s better, because they have lost the trust of folks over the last eight months months.”
The way the meeting began did not inspire much trust, either, Aiyer said. The trustees opened the meeting and then immediately went into an executive session behind closed doors to discuss the proposed partnership with a local charter school operator. They did not emerge to begin the public meeting for more than two hours.
Webber said the meeting’s descent into chaos was especially painful because children from some of the 10 schools were in the audience and witnessed her arrest.
“When we bring them to show them what being an American looks like, what exercising you civic duty looks like, you showed our black and brown children that when you try to engage civically, this is what you do to the community,” Webber said.
She had a direct message for Skillern-Jones: “Remove yourself. You are no longer trustworthy.”