Superintendent Millard House II told attendees at Thursday's school board meeting that district police need hundreds of new guns and extensive additional training in order to be properly prepared for an active shooter situation.
Aug. 8, 2022Updated: Aug. 8, 2022 1:44 p.m.
HISD Superintendent Millard House II speaks to press about the district's Project Safe Start 2022 initiative in June. House told attendees at a Thursday school board meeting that the district will not be able to adequately defend against an active shooter threat at its campuses without a large influx of new weaponry, tactical equipment and training.
Marie D. De Jesús/Staff photographerHouston Independent School District Superintendent Millard House II told attendees at a recent school board meeting that the district's police force was "not prepared" to confront an active shooter situation with its current level of equipment and training, FOX 26 reported.
"If there was an active shooter in HISD our police department is not prepared," House said at Thursday night's HISD board meeting, per FOX 26. "As an HISD parent myself, the safety and security of our students and staff is my highest priority," House added.
With the Uvalde school shooting looming fresh in parents' and students' minds, and the first day of school for HISD students two weeks away, both House and HISD Police Chief Pedro Lopez Jr. said that HISD needs a sizeable boost in weaponry, defensive equipment and active shooter training to be prepared for an active shooter situation.
"Two hundred rifles, 200 ballistic plates, shields as well, and rifle ammunition, to qualify our officers. Right now, as we’ve studied the Uvalde scenario and looked at what proper preparation needs to be in place, our officers would not have been prepared," House said.
According to Lopez, HISD officers need "actual scenario-based training with live fire and shields. We need to learn how to maneuver those doors. How to overcome breaching those doors, and we don’t have the equipment in order to do that."
Lopez also referenced law enforcement failures during the Uvalde shooting to appeal for more equipment and training for HISD officers: "An example is, we’ve all seen that horrible video and those scenes at Uvalde when we have officers standing there with the shields, but they didn’t take any action and that was because of the lack of preparation and training."
According to FOX 26, House said that the board will vote on the requested new equipment and training for HISD cops during this week's meeting.
The request for hundreds of new firearms, shields and additional training comes months after a five-year audit of HISD spending found the district is operating with more than $300 million in surplus funds.
An April report published by the Houston Chronicle's Alejandro Serrano detailed the results of a financial analysis conducted by New York-based management firm Alvarez & Marshal. The firm analyzed the district's financial decision-making over the past five years and found administrators had consistently overestimated HISD's yearly outlays, resulting in a $300 million surplus "well in excess of [school district] standards." In this period, HISD teaching positions have been cut and teacher compensation in the district have ranked below other nearby districts, according to the Houston Chronicle.
The audit found the district to have $170 million in its unassigned fund balance, according to Serrano.
English (United States) ·