Electronic cigarettes were the most used tobacco product among middle school and high school students in the U.S. during 2023, according to a report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. More than 2.1 million students reported current use of e-cigarettes, based on data from the 2023 National Youth Tobacco Survey. While the number of high school students using tobacco products declined nearly 4%, the CDC reported a 2.1% increase in tobacco use among middle school students. Dr. Devika Rao, pediatric pulmonologist at Children’s Health and associate professor at UT Southwestern Medical Center, breaks down how e-cigarettes can be harmful to children. She also gives advice about how parents can talk to their children about vaping and lists informational resources to learn more about e-cigarettes. view article

A Tom Green Elementary School prekindergarten teacher has filed a lawsuit seeking at least $1 million in damages against the driver of a concrete pump truck who caused a fatal wreck involving three other vehicles, including a Hays school district bus carrying dozens of pre-K students and school staff. The lawsuit also alleges negligence in the hiring of the driver, Jerry Hernandez, by Bastrop County-based companies F.J.M. Concrete LLC and FJM Concrete Pumping LLC and their owner, Francisco Xavier Martinez Jr. Martinez and the two businesses are named as defendants. view article

The embattled speaker said he has “not wavered” on his support for placing Democrats in leadership positions during a recent interview.  A new television ad from Club for Growth Action targets House Speaker Dade Phelan’s appointment of liberal Democrats to leadership positions.  The 30-second spot, titled “Had a Choice,” highlights several of the Democrat chairs Phelan has appointed during his tenure as speaker of the House. view article

This comes as Texas continues its efforts to curb illegal border crossings despite the Biden administration’s open border policies.  The Texas National Guard has installed new anti-climb concertina wire fences near El Paso as the border crisis worsens.  The anti-climb barricades are similar to the fences that were built in Brownsville late last year. According to KTSM, the anti-climb barricades consist of wire fence panels 12 feet tall and laced with a 3-foot thick looping layer of concertina wire. In Brownsville, the goal is to construct 6,000 feet of anti-climb barricades. view article

DENVER (AP) — In January, Jessica Vestal’s 10-year-old autistic son, who cannot speak, came home from school in suburban Denver with bruises all over his body. Other injuries followed, including a black eye in February, which she said a bus aide blamed on him hitting himself with a toy, and a bruised foot in March. It wasn't until Vestal asked to review the bus surveillance video last month, which she made public Tuesday, that she learned the bus aide was abusing her son. view article

The family of a former Lake Travis High School football player is suing the Lake Travis Independent School District, including the superintendent and athletic director, after fellow football players put peanuts in their son’s locker. In the lawsuit, which was filed on April 6, the family alleges the teens knew their teammate was severely allergic, and the district failed to take any action to prevent bullying against their son. view article

Kedria Grigsby, 42, a cosmetology teacher at Klein Cain High School was arrested Monday, according to Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez, via X (formerly known as Twitter), along with her son, Roger Magee, 21. The latter was arrested back in November 2022 for trafficking and prostitution. view article

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti — When Walder St. Louis entered the Miami pawnshop in October 2021, his shopping list contained just a few items: Two AK-47s and an AR-15. Germine Joly, then head of the Haitian gang 400 Mawozo, had placed the order from a Port-au-Prince prison. St. Louis would soon send two barrels of firearms back to the Haitian capital. Heavily armed gangs control 80 percent of Port-au-Prince, the United Nations has estimated, where they rape, kidnap and kill with impunity. Haiti doesn’t manufacture firearms, and the United Nations prohibits importing them, but that’s no problem for the criminals. When they go shopping, the United States is their gun store. The semiautomatic rifles that have wrought human carnage from an elementary school in Newtown, Conn., to a Walmart in El Paso are also being used to menace the Haitian government and terrorize the population. view article

JASPER, Texas — The Jasper community is heartbroken following the death of Jasper Police officer Christopher Sherer following a Friday afternoon wreck. Sherer served on the police force but was also a beloved School Resource Officer. Friends and loved ones said Sherer always greeted students with a smile and the only thing he loved more than protecting and serving the Jasper community, was his wife and and two daughters. view article

Klein ISD confirms a cosmetology teacher at Klein Cain High School has been arrested and is facing felony charges of sex trafficking and compelling prostitution. In a letter sent out to families with students at Klein Cain, Principal Lauren Marti and Klein ISD Police Chief Marlon Runnels said cosmetology teacher Kedria Grigsby was taken into custody for the charges. view article

A Klein Cain High School cosmetology teacher was arrested Monday and charged with child trafficking and compelling prostitution. Kedria McMath Grigsby, 42, is in the Harris County Jail. The Harris County District Attorney's Office is requesting a $250,000 bond. view article

A university system regent has sought input from the victims’ families about restoring the tradition, which was suspended after the 1999 tragedy.  Building the Aggie bonfire was once among the most prized student traditions at Texas A&M University. That changed when the 60-foot stack of logs fell and killed 12 people in 1999, becoming one of the most painful chapters in the university’s history.  Now, 25 years after the tragedy, the Texas A&M University System Board of Regents is considering bringing the tradition back ahead of the school’s first football match against the University of Texas at Austin in years.  Texas A&M President Mark Welsh formed a committee in November to explore how to commemorate the renewed football rivalry with UT-Austin, as the Longhorns join the Southeastern Conference this year. In a January letter obtained by The Texas Tribune, regent and rivalry committee member John Bellinger wrote to families of the 1999 bonfire victims asking for input on the possibility of resuming the bonfire with oversight from the university’s administration. view article

Klein ISD confirms a custodian who worked at Zwink Elementary School died after suffering a medical emergency Tuesday. view article

A federal lawsuit has been filed against Fort Bend Independent School District over shocking allegations involving an elementary student with autism. That little girl hasn't been at Oakland Elementary School in Richmond since October, according to her parents. But her mother told ABC13 that her daughter's mental scars remain. view article

The National Transportation Safety Board on Monday opened an incident investigation into a crash last month involving a concrete pump truck and a Hays district school bus carrying 11 adults and 44 prekindergarten students. A student and a motorist driving behind the bus died in the wreck.  The federal agency is investigating the March 22 crash to gain information that could help officials understand similar crashes to determine potential safety improvements, said Kristin Poland, deputy director of Office of Highway Safety at the safety board, in an interview Wednesday. The agency has open investigations into two recent school bus crashes in West Virginia and Illinois.  Unlike a full investigation, the safety board won’t send investigators to the crash site or issue a report or recommendations related to the Hays crash. While she declined to comment on the details of the March 22 crash, Poland said these investigations seek to understand the safety features of the vehicles involved in a crash as well as other factors that could have led to a wreck. view article

A former Cy-Fair Independent School District teacher has pleaded guilty to injuring a kindergarten student with special needs after reportedly dragging him by his ankle down the school’s hallways in September of 2022, according to court documents. view article

A Spring ISD middle school student was arrested Tuesday after a search led to the discovery of a weapon, according to the school district. In a statement, Spring ISD shared that the weapon was found during a random K9 search at Claughton Middle School. Upon finding the weapon, the district police and school administration immediately launched an investigation, and the campus was put on a hold. view article

EL PASO — On the sunny morning of Texas’ March primaries, Jorge Trujillo, 73, a retired packing factory salesperson, stood outside a senior center here canvassing for Homer Reza, a Democratic candidate for the Texas House. A white sheet of paper taped to the community center’s door tallied the day’s voters: Only 60 people had cast a ballot by noon. “I think people have given up on politics,” Trujillo said, standing in the parking lot with his wife, Sylvia. “Seeing all this division, they simply don’t care anymore.” The situation was stark, but not particularly surprising. This West Texas border town — with more than 677,000 residents, most of them Mexican American — is in a low voter-turnout county in a low voter-turnout state. view article

As schools across the state work to improve their on-campus safety, Bryan ISD found a new security concern they’re looking to address. Students aren’t lining up in the cafeteria for lunch, they’re using apps and services like DoorDash to have their favorite foods delivered right to school. view article

On Sept. 6, 2022, a 5-year-old boy, enrolled in an Early Childhood Special Education class, was in the school gymnasium when he became upset and left the gym after he opted not to participate in a game other students were playing, charging documents read. Hall reportedly followed the boy and found him lying on the floor, kicking, screaming and cursing. She grabbed him by the ankles and pulled him on his back down the hallways, documents read. view article

The driver of a concrete truck that drifted into oncoming traffic and collided with a Hays ISD school bus last Friday has been charged with criminally negligent homicide, according to Bastrop County criminal records. The charge is a state jail felony, the least severe of all felonies, punishable by up to two years in jail and a fine of up to $10,000. view article

Hays Independent School District has released two videos from cameras on a school bus involved in Friday’s deadly crash with a concrete truck. One video shows the front of the bus as it’s driving in western Bastrop County, bringing pre-K students from Tom Green Elementary School and 11 adults home from a field trip to the Bastrop Zoo. The other video is from a camera on the side of the bus. view article

A former Cy-Fair ISD staff member will spend nine years in prison for inappropriately touching an 18-year-old Life Skills student, according to court documents. Ennis Hernandez pleaded guilty to inducing a child into sexual performance and having an improper relationship with a student. In each case, he was sentenced to nine years, but both sentences must be served concurrently. view article

A Caddo Mills ISD employee has been arrested and charged with possession of child pornography, according to the district. The employee, Sean Day, worked in the district warehouse overseeing custodians and did not supervise any students. view article

Ennis Hernandez, the former Cy-Fair ISD paraprofessional who was found to be inappropriately touching a student at the school he worked at, has been sentenced. Hernandez was sentenced to nine years in Harris County Jail after being charged with having an improper relationship with a student and the sexual performance of a child. view article

Since Randall Mays was sentenced to death in 2008 for the murder of two sheriff’s deputies, his lawyers have argued his intellectual disability exempts him from execution.  The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals re-sentenced a 64-year-old man on death row to life in prison without parole on Wednesday after a state expert confirmed in trial court that he is intellectually disabled.  Randall Mays was sentenced to death in 2008 for the murder of two sheriff's deputies in Henderson County but in the years since his legal team has filed multiple appeals arguing he is exempt from execution due to his mental competency and intellectual disability.  Over two decades ago, the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that executing people with intellectual disabilities violates the Eighth Amendment’s restriction of cruel and unusual punishments, which the criminal appellate court cited in its resentencing decision. view article

LUBBOCK — Cows in the Texas Panhandle have tested positive for the bird flu, another blow to the Texas dairy industry following historic wildfires that killed at least 7,000 livestock.  The discovery, reported at two different dairies, is believed to be the first time the disease was found in livestock, researchers say.  Strains of Highly Pathogenic Avian Influenza, commonly known as the bird flu, were confirmed Monday by the U.S. Secretary of Agriculture and the Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. The state agriculture department is also monitoring the outbreak. Similar outbreaks have been reported at dairies in Kansas and New Mexico.  The U.S. Department of Agriculture said there is no safety concern to the commercial milk supply. Consumer health is also not at risk, the department said. The milk from impacted animals is being dumped or destroyed and will not enter the food supply. view article

Community members in the Hays school district support and donate money to families impacted by the Friday school bus crash. Houston ISD is expected to expand several of its controversial reforms during the 2024-25 school year, according to a preliminary version of the district's plans shared earlier this month. HISD's state-appointed Superintendent Mike Miles presented a draft version of the district’s action plan to the District Advisory Committee last week, along with the Board of Managers. He also previewed the plan with the Principal Advisory Committee and the Teacher Advisory Committee. The plan, as of March 17, lists 10 of the district’s planned “key actions” for next year, which include plans to reduce hundreds of central office staff positions, call a bond election in November and mandate leadership training for principals. view article

A cement truck veered into a school bus carrying more than 40 pre-K students — including one from Seguin ISD — returning from a field trip to a Texas zoo Friday, killing a boy on the bus and a man in another vehicle, authorities said. Seguin ISD Superintendent Veronica Vijil on Monday said that one of her district’s students was on the bus. She provided few additional details but said the student was alive and not in the hospital as of Monday afternoon. view article

Lake Olympia Middle School parents are upset after a Fort Bend Independent School District police officer used pepper spray to break up a fight, affecting students who weren't involved. Stacey Alvarez said she got a text from her 13-year-old son on Tuesday afternoon saying there was a fight as he padded through the hallway between classes. He said that the officer used pepper spray to separate the students who were fighting, and the mist got on him. view article

LCM-CISD is working with TCEQ to begin collecting and testing water samples across campuses for lead. Little Cypress Mauriceville Consolidated Independent School District is taking preventive measures to ensure water is safe in schools. LCM-CISD is working with the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to begin collecting and testing water samples across campuses for lead. Officials say that the free U.S. EPA program will last about 45 days. view article

Fairfield ISD Superintendent Joe Craig said everyone is safe and there are only minor injuries following a school bus crash on FM-488. Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS) Troopers responded to a crash on FM-488 near CR 232, northeast of Fairfield, at about 7 a.m. on Monday, March 25. Troopers reported the school bus left the roadway and struck a utility pole. The school district believes the inclement weather “likely contributed to the accident.” view article

The Vernon Independent School District and Wilbarger County Sheriff’s Department found a handgun on the Vernon Middle School campus. The WCSD informed VISD the morning of March 25, a Facebook post from VISD said. The same morning, the School Resource Officer and WCS deputies searched a student’s locker and found a handgun. The student with the handgun and another involved student were questioned at the Sheriff’s Office. The parents of both students were contacted. view article

The Texas Department of State Health Services has updated its COVID-19 school attendance exclusion criteria to match the requirements for other respiratory viruses like the flu. view article

JEFFERSON COUNTY — A concrete platform with fading blue paint marks the birthplace of the modern oil and gas industry in southeast Texas. Weather-beaten signs describe how drillers tapped the Spindletop oil well in 1901, a discovery that launched petroleum giants Texaco, Mobil and Gulf Oil. Nearby, a red pipeline traces a neat path above flat, gravel-covered earth. French company Air Liquide started building this unassuming facility, with a wellhead and other machinery, on the iconic site in 2014 to store what it believes will be key to an energy revolution: hydrogen. The ground that once released millions of barrels of oil now holds some 4.5 billion cubic feet of highly pressurized hydrogen. The gas is contained in a skyscraper-shaped cavern that reaches about a mile below ground within a subterranean salt dome. view article