By Alejandro Serrano
Source Houston Chronicle
Houston ISD's police department would not be prepared should Texas' largest school district be targeted by an active shooter, Superintendent Millard House II said Thursday night.
"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.
His remarks were in response to questioning from Trustee Dani Hernandez regarding an item the board is expected to vote on during next week's meeting for purchase of items worth more than $100,000. The specific agenda item includes various purchases for the school district's police department.
House said the district would be buying 200 rifles, 200 ballistic plate shields and rifle ammunition.
"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 said.
The May 24 school shooting in Uvalde resulted in the deaths of 19 children and two teachers. A Texas House committee investigating the police response found 376 officers rushed to Robb Elementary 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.
Hernandez asked what research was guiding HISD, instead of feelings. House asked HISD police Chief Pete Lopez to share information in response to her question.
Lopez said research showed police who were better prepared helped in stopping a shooter faster. 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." He said they needed scenario-based training to learn how to respond to such a threat.
The school district 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 describing how the shields would be used but less than a minute into his response a district lawyer interrupted to say they wanted the district to be careful in assessing vulnerabilities in the district's response, training and equipment during an open session, suggesting instead the board go into closed session to discuss the matter.
Board president Judith Cruz also expressed reservations, saying she had read the investigative House committee report about the Uvalde shooting where police had the gear.
After discussing other items for nearly 10 minutes, the board went into closed session for about an hour and a half.
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