Colleges slow to release disease response
Several Houston-area colleges and universities are scrambling to draft monkeypox prevention and response plans with weeks to go before the fall semester.
The lack of formulated strategies — at least to date — worries some medical professionals who say universities are a likely place for the disease to spread, especially in dormitory settings.
“I’m in general a little bit concerned that we’re not taking this seriously enough, that we’re fatigued with COVID and we’re just going to wait and watch and see what happens before we act,” said Luis Ostrosky, chief of infectious diseases with McGovern Medical School at UTHealth Houston and Memorial Hermann Hospital.
Fresh off the COVID-19 pandemic, colleges and universities are well-situated to adapt certain responses to monkeypox, although a very different disease, health experts said.
But some college and university officials say their campuses are still monitoring the outbreak — including the University of Houston, Rice University, Sam Houston State University, San Jacinto College and Houston Community College — and several of those said they are working on more specific guidance to send to students before classes begin.
Few in Texas have issued plans related to vaccines, quarantining and their health departments’ abilities to spot the disease. Texas A&M University has indicated that its student health services can test for monkeypox.
“College campuses have a long history of understanding how infectious diseases spread and have public health infra
tration decided to withhold any cuts to the HISD Police Department within our district for this very reason,” House said.
“Our officers need the proper training and equipment so that the district is prepared for a worst-case scenario. As I shared at our recent board meeting, our current assessment is that HISD PD needs additional equipment and resources to ensure they are prepared to respond to just that kind of situation,” he added. “That is why we’ve put forward several safety-related items before the board for approval on next week’s agenda.”
Houston police also would respond to a shooting at a school, but a department spokesman said Friday he could not elaborate “for tactical reasons.”
HISD Police Chief Pete Lopez said research shows police who were better prepared helped in stopping a shooter faster.
He said he was confident about training the district’s police force — estimated to be more than 200 employees — had received, but he did “not have a lot of confidence in preparing our officers to encounter a suspect without the proper equipment.”
Lopez said they needed scenario-based training to learn how to respond to such a threat.
HISD has about 195,000 students.
“The equipment that I’ve requested is to provide additional training to teach the officers how to breach the doors, how to use those shields and also quickly enter that room and neutralize the suspect,” Lopez said. “And, of course, save our students and our staff.”
Hernandez asked if the district needed one shield for each officer on the district’s Police Department.
Lopez started to describe how the shields would be used, but a district lawyer quickly interrupted to suggest the board go into a closed executive session to discuss potential vulnerabilities in the district’s response, training and equipment during the public meeting.
Board president Judith Cruz also expressed reservations.
“I have some of the same concerns that Trustee Hernandez expressed,” Cruz said. “I read the report on Uvalde and the officers had all of these items.”
The Texas Education Agency said school systems must take various measures before the beginning of the year, including an exterior door audit and a safety audit.
HISD police is working on the audits, House said.
“I have had teachers tell me they have concerns, but hearing the superintendent say we’re not ready and hearing the chief of police for HISD basically say we’re not ready, it’s more concerning,” said Jackie Anderson, president of the Houston Federation of Teachers, HISD’s largest teacher’s union. “We should listen to them. The chief is the expert in this.”