HISD’s House seeks top gear for PD
Trustees are to consider up to $1.5 million in equipment to handle a shooter on campus
Houston ISD’s Police Department would not be prepared in the event of an active shooter incident inside one of the schools in Texas’ largest district, Superintendent Millard House II said this week.
“I don’t know that this has garnered community insight, but what I do know is that, if there was an active shooter in HISD, our Police Department is not prepared,” House said during an agenda review meeting Thursday night.
His remarks were in response to questions from Trustee Dani Hernandez regarding the proposed purchase of 200 rifles, ammunition and 200 ballistic shields for the district’s Police Department.
The board is expected to vote on the agenda item, with a cost not to exceed $1.5 million, during next week’s regular meeting.
“As we study the Uvalde scenario and looked at what ... proper preparation that needs to be in place, officers would not have been prepared for what that looks like,” House told trustees.
The May 24 school shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde killed 19 children and two teachers. The gunman, a former district student, was killed by a U.S. Border Patrol tactical team.
A Texas House committee investigating the police response found 376 officers rushed to the school but a disastrous series of communication breakdowns and other “systemic failures” led to that army of cops standing down for more than an hour before the Border Patrol officers entered the classroom and killed the 18-year-old gunman.
Several HISD schools have received upgrades to fencing, cameras and video storage capacity this summer, House said Friday. HISD police staffs all middle and high schools with an officer while elementary campuses have dedicated patrols.
“As an HISD parent myself, the safety and security of our students and staff is my highest priority. Prior to the tragic events in Uvalde, the adminis
structure in terms of contact tracing,” said Jill Weatherhead, assistant professor of tropical medicine and infectious diseases at Baylor College of Medicine. “But there has to be a plan in place, because this is different than prior infectious disease outbreaks.”
The World Health Organization has declared monkeypox a global health emergency. Monkeypox for years has been endemic in certain parts of Africa but has spread worldwide, with most reported cases among men who have sex with men.
How it spreads
The disease is not sexually transmitted and is not isolated to any one community. Transmission usually requires prolonged skin-to-skin contact, although monkeypox also can spread through respiratory droplets in lengthy face-to-face contacts, or via materials — such as bedsheets or blankets — that have picked up the virus.
Symptoms include a rash, fever, chills, swollen lymph nodes, head and muscle aches, and fatigue.
The rash can look like pimples or blisters that appears on the face, inside the mouth, and on other parts of the body, like the hands, feet, chest, genitals, or anus, according to the CDC.
The risk to the public remains low, health officials say. There have been no reported deaths among the roughly 7,100 cases in the U.S., and hospitalizations are mostly for pain management.
There were 143 cases in Houston on Thursday, according to the Houston Health Department.
As places of learning, universities have a responsibility to educate students, faculty and staff about communicable diseases, said Wafaa El-Sadr, director of Columbia World Projects and ICAP at Columbia University. That can go a long way in curbing infections, she said.
“That’s our best tool at this point, to communicate early and communicate often,” El-Sadr said.
Weatherhead, at Baylor College of Medicine, said university and college students need to be aware of how monkeypox spreads, how to prevent it and what they should do if they notice symptom, including where to go for testing, she said.
Some higher education institutions, including University of Houston and Texas A&M University, have updated their websites with advisories or frequently asked questions about monkeypox.
Risks might also vary depending on the institution. Students at traditional four-year universities might be vulnerable in their dormitories or at parties, and school officials should solidify how to handle isolation spaces and laundry facilities for people who have tested positive, Ostrosky said.
Officials at San Jacinto College and Houston Community College said that community colleges are not at high risk for transmission — especially because they don’t have dorms — but they are are prepared to communicate with students if conditions change.
Combating stigmas will be important everywhere, health experts said.
Rejecting stereotypes
UH’s advisory containing preliminary information on symptoms and prevention included a section disputing misinformation about the disease — emphasizing that it is not sexually transmitted or isolated to LGBTQ communities.
“As an inclusive and caring university community, we have a shared responsibility to refrain from using stigmatizing words or actions related to monkeypox virus,” said Stephen J. Spann, UH’s vice president for medical affairs. “It is paramount that we share factual information so that people can make the best decisions for their health and the health of our community.”