On August 14th, amidst the hostile takeover of HISD where student safety and well-being is not prioritized, 14-year old Landon Payton tragically passed away. Staff had not been trained in the use of the available emergency defibrillators and the defibrillators were not even functional at the time - they are supposed to be inspected monthly. The callous response given by Mike Miles at the start of the year is further proof of the disregard of childrens’ lives taking place by the state takeover of HISD.
what’s going on here with HISD
In short, the state of Texas has taken over Houston’s school district, citing “underperformance” as the reason, when in reality its due to pushing families away from public school and into charter schools that the state government is heavily promoting. The man put in charge, Mike Miles, has a history of coming into school districts and gutting them, creating unproductive environments for children to learn in. Teachers have been fired and are leaving en masse due to these conditions as well
Here are two good liberation news articles on the takeover as well as a texas tribune article that gives a decent breakdown of the whole situation
- https://www.liberationnews.org/across-texas-communities-fight-to-defend-public-education/
- https://www.liberationnews.org/texas-is-replacing-houstons-school-libraries-with-discipline-centers-but-the-community-is-fighting-back/
- https://www.texastribune.org/2023/03/16/tea-hisd-takeover-texas-houston-schools/
