Reforms urged in Fort Bend County
Muhammad Khan didn’t want to just talk, hewanted to take action after the killing of George Floyd by Minneapolis police.
So the Fort Bend ISD graduate and a former classmate created a group, Fort Bend County Policing Reform, in an effort to bring changes to law enforcement in the fast-growing, diverse county.
“This is a guy from our own city,” Khan, 20, said of Floyd, a longtime Houston resident. “So, what better way to represent him than doing the work that he would’ve wanted us to do?”
Floyd’s death also got Sameeha Rizvi and Chinelo Dike thinking about change. The 2019 graduates of Austin High School watched as students across the country began to speak out about racism in
schools, spurring the pair to focus on racial inequities in their former district. They formed a group called FBISD Equity Coalition, put together a list of recommendations and held meetings with some school board trustees and Fort Bend ISD Superintendent Charles Dupre.
The efforts illustrate how Floyd’s death— and the protests it spawned — are motivating younger people to advocate for reforms in Fort Bend, an increasingly diverse county of 831,000 residents.
“It’s not about us. It’s about other people,” said Rizvi, 19. “Do we want a generation of children to grow up again with this lack of sensitivity toward other ethnic groups and racial groups, toward other individuals that are different from them?”
Changes to law enforcement
Floyd, 46, an African American, died during an arrest in May when a Minneapolis police officer knelt on his neck for nearly nine minutes. The killing, captured on video by a bystander, led to mass protests against systemic racismin lawenforcement. Students and alumni also began to speak out about racism in public schools and colleges.
In Fort Bend, Khan, a graduate of Dulles High School, created a Facebook group to begin a discussion about law enforcement in his county. Within two weeks, the group had 600 members.
Rahul Nagvekar, a classmate of Khan’s who also helped launch the group, grew up in Fort Bend but didn’t start brainstorming about what kind of law enforcement reforms could take place locally until after Floyd’s death.
“Maybe, I kind of had the naivete or the ignorance to not really think about what were the issues that were happening here,” said Nagvekar, 22. “I wanted to first learn more about what were the problems and then try to see how I could contribute to solving them.”
To their surprise, the group started to hear from police officers in the community interested in participating.
“Whywould someonework toward exposing the corruption within the system that they work for?” Khan said.
Democrat Eric Fagan, a retired Houston police officer running for sheriff, wanted to help the group.
Nabil Shike, who is campaigning to be Fort Bend County Precinct 4 constable, also signed up.
Since the group started, participants have come up with more than 120 reform ideas. They include better training for officers to deal with people who have a mental illness and to de- escalate tense situations.
They hold weekly Zoom calls on Saturdays to talk over issues.
The group’s top priority is equipping all lawenforcement officers in the county with body cameras, which they believe will improve transparency.
The fatal shooting in July of Deputy Constable CalebRule by a deputy sheriff while both were responding to a call put more focus on the lack of body cameras in the county. Rule apparently was wearing a body camera, but the Fort Bend County deputy sheriffs who responded, including one who was subsequently fired and charged in the death, were not. Rule was white and the
fired deputy is black.
The group is urging the Commissioners Court to help fund body cameras for the county.
Fort Bend County Precinct 4 Constable Trever Nehls, who is seeking to succeed his brother as county sheriff, said he would work to secure funding for body cameras if elected. Nehls, whose officers have body cameras already, said he has been in contact with the group and is aware of some of their reform ideas.
“It will be one of the top priorities to work with the Commissioners Court and others, public and private, to secure funding for body-worn cameras for sheriff’s deputies that are in a patrol capacity,” Nehls said.
County Judge KP George agreed. “Fort Bend County fully supports the use (of ) body cameras as an important tool to protect lawenforcement officers and the public,” George said in a statement.
Discrimination in schools
Dike, the Austin High graduate, still rememberswhen a classmate called her the N-word during her junior year.
“Hey, what’s up (N-word)?” she recalled the classmate saying to her as she sat in a fine arts prac
tice room.
Dikewas shocked and rebuked the student. “I felt in that moment that I really couldn’t report it because itwouldn’t be taken seriously, because itwasn’t an actual threat,” said Dike, 18, who is Nigerian.
Dike is not alone. More than 100 student, parent and alumni responses have been submitted to FBISD Equity through aGoogle form about discrimination and other issues within the school district.
For example, a student at Austin High School said a teacher has constantly questioned them about wearing a hijab.
“She asked multiple times if I was ever hot or if Iwanted to take it off, aswell aswhy Iwore it,” the student wrote. “Although I was fine answering these questions the first few times she asked, it became clear to me by the 6th time she asked that she was not looking for answer, but, instead, an opportunity to question my modesty.”
A student at Ridge Point High School recalled instances of Asian students being mocked. The student wrote they include comments such as, “Do you feel bad for bringing (the coronavirus) to the states?” and, “Don’t get too close! You’ll givemethe virus!”
The FBISD Equity Groupwants a better definition of racism, discrimination and hate speech-related terms in both the student code of conduct and the student/ parent handbook. This will provide more protections for students, staff and faculty.
The group also wants faculty, staff and district leaders to undergo cultural competency and anti-racism training. It believes the school district should re- evaluate the roles of individuals in leadership who continue to use discriminatory language or actions, especially after warning or paid leave.
The group supports the incorporation ofAfricanAmerican history into the general history curriculum, not just as an elective for high school students.
In a written statement, Fort Bend ISD said it has “a commitment to honor our students and our community so that all feel included and have equitable learning experiences.”
School board trustees adopted a resolution in July backing a board committee, a district audit and an oversight committee — all focused on equity. The district said student and alumni leaders of advocacy groups are expected “to be included in the process of identifying areas of improvement and potential policy revisions.”
Hopeful for change
The students pushing for change in Fort Bend are all now college students.
Dike attends the University of Houston. Both Rizvi and Khan are students at the University of Texas at Austin.
Nagvekar is now working on his Ph.D. at Stanford University.
At first, Khan said, he doubted he could make a difference as a young person advocating for change in his home county.
Then Khan thought about another movement started by young people — those who pushed for gun reform after a 2018 mass shooting in Parkland, Fla., that left 17 dead.
“Instead of putting ourselves down, we use it as encouragement,” Khan said.