Hundreds gather to plead for increased security, funding for Texas schools – Houston Chronicle

Craig Wilems has already contemplated what he would do if someone with a gun opened fire inside Pasadena ISD’s Rick Schneider Middle School.

The fifth-grade science teacher said he would block the door to his class and try to shield his students from the spray of bullets. He said a recent spate of school shootings made him realize deserting his students to confront the gunman could do them more harm than good.

“My job is to protect the kids in my room. Some may call that cowardly, but they didn’t give me a bullet proof vest,” Wilems said. “I’m a teacher, not a soldier.”

A day after 17-year-old Dimitrios Pagourtzis allegedly killed 10 at Santa Fe High School, concerns over school safety and security were on the lips of parents, students and teachers gathered at a rally in Discovery Green Saturday.

Schools around Houston, like in most other places nationwide, saw a spike in the number of threats and lockdowns after the Florida massacre at Stoneman Douglas High School in February. Concerned parents flooded school board meetings and education officials’ inboxes to ask more be done to protect their students.

Some districts and law enforcement agencies have already acted. A day after the Parkland shooting, Harris County Precinct 4 Constable Mark Herman tasked deputies with checking on schools in the Klein, Humble, Tomball and Cypress-Fairbanks school districts each day. Katy ISD’s Board of Education approved in April a three-year contract with Social Sentinel to screen public social media posts for threats against any of its 68 campuses. Before Parkland, Aldine ISD already installed metal detectors in each of its 76 schools, and students in grades 6 through 12 must be screened as they enter the campuses.

Still, education leaders and teacher union officials at Saturday’s rally, which the Texas American Federation of Teachers organized weeks before Friday’s shooting, said more must be done at the state level. Speakers told the crowd of more than 400 that public schools suffer a lack of funding from Austin and pleaded with elected officials to better fund school safety initiatives.

“These are children, and they’re not in some far away state or country, they’re not just somebody else’s kids or somebody else’s family,” said Zoe Nansen, a student at Houston ISD’s Carnegie Vanguard High School and an organizer of Houston Youth Walkout. “This is our community, these are our children, and they deserve the right to walk into classrooms to learn without the fear of being murdered.”

Some state politicians have pledged that prayers for those affected will be followed by action. Gov. Greg Abbott announced Friday he would begin to hold “round-table” meetings to discuss guns and school safety next week.

Cypress-Fairbanks ISD Trustee John Ogletree Jr. said any pledges to secure schools must include the money to do so. Cash-strapped school districts would need more resources to pay for additional surveillance cameras, security devices and safety officers, he asked.

Sybil Hunter, a Houston ISD food service employee and union leader of Houston Educational Support Personnel, agreed.

“I can tell you right now what can be done – you can release some of those funds, send them to our schools so our kids can be safe,” Hunter told those gathered in Discovery Green, “so our local schools can get the things they need to put in their schools such as gates and metal detectors.”

Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, said the Santa Fe High School shooting presents voters with a moral imperative to act.

“Kids are more fearful of school shootings than they are hopeful for their futures,” Weingarten said. “We are at the crossroads here in our country. We are at the crossroads here in Texas. We have to decide what matters more — kids or the NRA.”

*8:38 p.m.: This story was updated to reflect that Zoe Nansen was an organizer for the Houston Youth Walkout, not March For Our Lives Houston.

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On – 19 May, 2018 By