The first thing that we want to say is that it was good to see people protesting and not engaging in criminal mischief while at the Headquarters of Houston Independent School District (HISD). During this public protest, people were expressing their anger and disappointment of what they have deemed a “hostile takeover of (HISD)” by the state school board here in Texas. As we spoke with several protesters, they informed us that many teachers and staff were “fired” due to proposed budget cuts and for what school board legislators claimed to be “failing” educators.
“Everyone from Teachers, Janitors, and even school Librarians were fired!”, as one protester exclaimed. Also standing in support were politicians, and current law makers from Austin (Texas). During the protest, there were several speakers that took to the podium to express their views and opinions of the Houston Independent School District which included parents, certified teachers, current and recently graduated students, and other concerned individuals.
When it was time for the board members to enter the actual board meeting, they were met with boos and other disparaging remarks while in the conference hall. We took the liberty to capture some of the heated conversations that took place between teachers. Moreover, some people took the controversial stance that the students of Houston ISD were doing academically better than the students in Dallas Texas. But when that stance was taken, there were several detractors that argued the opposite. Teachers and parents alike were also upset about the topic of charter schools and how unfair and biased the educational system in Texas is towards them.
Another issue that protesters had was with how the discipline of disruptive students was being handled by the new school administration. One protestor informed us that “they have a track record of sending the “problem kids” home to join the classroom via Zoom”. The question that matters is: “what’s going to become of the Houston Independent School District?”. Furthermore, what’s going to become of the teachers who were duly elected to sit on the school board who were adversely thrown out of their duly elected seats? The truth is only time will tell.
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