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 arw

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 arw

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 arw

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 arw

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 arw

After months of pressure, the Texas Medical Board proposed narrow medical exceptions to the state’s near-total abortion ban during its March 22 meeting. The board has been silent on the issue since Texas’ “trigger law” took effect in August 2022, banning nearly all abortions except to save a pregnant person’s life or prevent serious injury. The law does not include exceptions for rape or incest. The board opted to consider new guidance following calls for clarity from patients, doctors and lawmakers. Nearly two dozen women sued the state in the past year after they were forced to carry nonviable pregnancies under the abortion law. view article arw

As Texas school districts work to comply with House Bill 3—the requirement that all schools have at least one armed officer on campus—Austin ISD officials are doing so “their way” with a new motorcycle unit within the district’s police department. view article arw

wo boys in Texas have been arrested and taken into custody after they allegedly stabbed a woman who was left hospitalized and in critical condition, according to Fox News Digital.  The stabbing took place on Saturday at a residence on April Valley Court in Harris County around 2:00 p.m. The boys, aged seven and 12, returned to the home after a possible confrontation with the 59-year-old female victim.  After the incident, the boys quickly fled the scene. The woman was transported to a hospital by life flight, according to sheriff Ed Gonzalez. view article arw

Earlier on Friday, an email containing threats were sent to members of the Midland ISD School Board and a MISD administrator, according to MISD. MISD tells NewsWest 9 that the emails contained threats about books concerning parents that were brought up at Tuesday's MISD board meeting. MISD says police have been notified of the threats and law enforcement agencies are now investigating. view article arw

The Houston Police Department is investigating a deadly crash involving an Alief ISD school bus and another vehicle in southwest Houston on Saturday. Police say the accident happened at about 4:25 p.m. along Highway 59 at Fountainview, where the driver of a Volkswagen collided with an Alief ISD school bus. An Alief ISD spokesperson told ABC13 that the students on the bus were coming back from an out of city event. view article arw

After objection from district parents, Midland Independent School District says a sexually explicit library book, titled Push, is no longer shelved in its school libraries. “MISD has collected the books of concern that were brought to the attention of the school board to expedite the review process and will follow the legal framework and board policy EF (LOCAL) to review them,” Midland ISD Chief Communications Officer Lyndsey White told Texas Scorecard. “The book Push by Sapphire was not found in any of the campus libraries even though the district’s online catalog indicates there is one copy at Midland Freshman High School and a lost copy at Legacy High School,” White continued. view article arw

Public health agencies in Texas and across the world spent most of 2021 working overtime to distribute the COVID vaccine, the public’s best defense against the virus that has killed more than 100,000 Texans since 2020. Now, though, that same work is effectively banned in Texas. A provision in the state’s budget passed in May 2023 prohibits any entity funded by the state health department from promoting COVID vaccines in fiscal years 2024 and 2025. view article arw

The Austin ISD Police Department announced the creation of its new motorcycle unit Wednesday morning. The unit was launched in order to meet the requirements of Texas House Bill 3, a school safety bill passed in 2023. Superintendent Matias Segura said they had to be intentional about the way they went about it. view article arw

House bill 3 went into effect in September and mandated changes in security systems at schools across the state of Texas. These changes include new or upgraded security fences at schools in Beaumont ISD. "We have always had, as one of the priorities of our district was to ensure that students and staff were safe, we've always had fencing or gating," says Beaumont ISD Police Chief Joseph Malbrough. view article arw

Terrell County Sheriff Thaddeus Cleveland has 54 miles of U.S.-Mexico border in the West Texas jurisdiction he patrols, and five deputies. Cleveland said he “fully” supports Texas’ new immigration law that will let authorities like him arrest people suspected of illegally entering the state from another country. He also appreciates Operation Lone Star, the state’s border security initiative that has given him funds to hire two deputies and buy equipment and vehicles. But Cleveland, who served as a Border Patrol agent for 26 years before becoming sheriff of the county where he grew up, must also contemplate reality. His jail can only hold seven people, he said. The nearest legal points of entry into the country, through which those arrested under the new law would have to be returned in some instances, are hours away. view article arw

The U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals moved to place the law on hold again yesterday.  As the battle over Texas’ new border security law continues to wage on in the courts, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick told Chris Salcedo he “still feel[s] very good” about the law. After the U.S. Supreme Court moved to allow the law to go into effect on Tuesday afternoon, mere hours later in the evening, the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals put the law on hold yet again.  Whatever the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals decides, Patrick said he expects the case to land back in the Supreme Court.  view article arw

A state lawmaker and a Tarrant County official believe the measure primarily applies to border counties.  Fort Worth’s top law enforcement officer insisted that city police “will not change” their mission even if Texas’ new border security measure were to take effect.  Police Chief Neil Noakes issued a video statement Monday on X, pledging that, although the Fort Worth Police Department will “always follow the law, the primary responsibility for immigration enforcement and border protection should be left to our federal and state partners.” view article arw

Teen Wears Grandmas Dress To Prom And Finds This.. PlayJunkie| Sponsored Brandon Neil Sams, 48, pleaded guilty on March 19, 2024, to coercion and enticement of a minor before U.S. Magistrate Judge James Boone Baxter. According to court documents, while serving as a band instructor at Texas High School in Texarkana, Texas, Sams engaged in repeated attempts to coerce and entice several of his students to engage in sexual activity. Sams admitted to engaging in sexual conduct with several minor victims, all of whom were his students at Texas High. view article arw

Tuesday was a big day for a Keller ISD third grader who returned to school after being hit by a car. It happened about three weeks ago in Fort Worth when 8-year-old Scarlett Lowery was walking home from Park Glen Elementary School, shortly after crossing guards left for the day. She spent about a week recovering from a brain injury inside Cook Children's Pediatric ICU, but you never would have known it. view article arw

A student has been ‘emergency expelled’ from Klein ISD after reportedly bringing a loaded gun to campus. In an email to parents, representatives for the district said a loaded handgun was recovered at the school after administrators and district police received an anonymous tip. view article arw

A student has officially been expelled from Klein Independent School District after a loaded gun was reportedly found at a school on Tuesday, according to officials. KISD officials said 17-year-old Jeremiah Sherman, a senior, faces felony charges and has been expelled. view article arw

Carthage ISD has been awarded a $1 million state grant to add or improve safety measures at its campus. “What that grant does is it helps districts getting into compliance with the safety standards that came out of the last session, HB3,” Darrin Peeples, director of safety and security, said. “Some of the most ones that most of us will are looking at it or the fencing and then the film across our glass doors. And so now that I’m here, we’re gonna start looking at that, and also some new updated campus maps — digitized maps.” view article arw

Alvin ISD is encouraging parents with school-aged kids who have weapons at home to securely store them after a kindergarten student brought a gun to school. In a statement to parents, the district said the incident happened Tuesday at Savannah Lakes Elementary School. "One of our kindergarten students unknowingly brought a firearm to school," the district wrote. "Upon discovering the firearm in the student's backpack, our administrators promptly intervened and confiscated the weapon." view article arw

A teacher from the Northwest school district, which includes parts of Tarrant, Denton, and Wise Counties, is speaking ou after being targetted online for her support of gay students. view article arw

A Northwest ISD teacher whom KERA isn't naming for privacy reasons was the target of fake bomb threats last week, days after she was the subject of a social media post by the controversial Libs of TikTok. Allegations against the Medlin Middle school math teacher by the ultra-conservative Moms for Liberty, via Libs of TikTok, openly named the teacher. view article arw

At least one school library in a South Carolina school district restricted access to its online card catalog in order to hide “critical race theory books” from parents, internal documents obtained by the parental rights group Moms for Liberty show. The school district claims that it required all schools in the district to unlock their catalogs at the beginning of the school year, but the Moms for Liberty leader says at least one catalog remained blocked as late as Feb. 12. “Instead of listing these books as available in the library, they are making a conscious decision to include them in curriculum read aloud in class so parents don’t know,” Carly Carter, chair of the Anderson County Moms for Liberty chapter, told The Daily Signal in a written statement Wednesday. Carter’s Freedom of Information Act request turned up the documents. view article arw

Along line of Waco High students stretches from the school’s main entrance to the Colcord Avenue curb most mornings before classes begin. They inch forward, many toting clear backpacks crammed with books and daily school gear, as they walk through the school’s “prohibited items detector,” which uses artificial intelligence to scan for weapons and suspiciously shaped objects. The detector, created by Evolv Technology, is used at public schools across the country, including Killeen Independent School District. view article arw

Public data from a network of state air monitors around the Houston Ship Channel is hard to interpret and is often inadequate, leaving Latino-majority neighborhoods like Cloverleaf unaware of whether the air they breathe is safe.  On a hot, humid October day, Cristina Lazo readies her youngest daughter for a bike ride and whispers in Spanish, I pray to God nothing happens to you.  Lazo, who wears a Rebelde band T-shirt and biker shorts, takes Alina, an energetic 7-year-old, outdoors for short periods because it only takes a few minutes before Alina’s eyes get red and her coughing starts.  “Vámonos,” Lazo yells, lengthening the last syllable as she begins pedaling through the streets of Cloverleaf, an unincorporated area about 15 miles east of downtown Houston. Alina starts coughing immediately.  Lazo, a 42-year-old mother of six, knows that tonight she’ll rub Vicks VapoRub on her daughter’s chest, and in the morning Alina will still wake up with congestion and what Lazo calls "itchy spider webs” in her eyes. view article arw

Despite the air of confidence he typically wore through the halls, 17-year-old Kadence Carter suffered through most days at Mayde Creek High School in Katy. Several of his classmates constantly bullied and misgendered Kadence, a transgender male. He wore multiple chest binders every day to school, which dug aching craters into his shoulders and stained his skin with bruises. He avoided drinking water the entire eight-hour school day so he wouldn’t need to use the boys’ bathroom, where he worried about getting beaten up. The unrelenting struggles Kadence faced came to a head in August 2023, when the Katy Independent School District board of trustees passed a controversial gender identity policy opposed by many LGBTQ+ students and advocates. One day after the policy went into effect, a teacher held up the attendance roster in front of Kadence, pointed to his deadname and said, “We’re going back to this one now,” he recalled. view article arw

Katy Independent School District will conduct free CRASE training – Civilian Response to Active Shooter Events – on March 27th from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. at the district’s Education Service Complex, 6301 S. Stadium Lane in Katy. The event – which is available ONLY to Katy ISD parents and staff and which is limited to 75 participants – is designed to help civilians understand what they should do if confronted with an active shooter situation. The Civilian Response to Active Shooter Events (CRASE) training is designed and built on the AVOID, DENY and DEFEND strategy, according to a flyer provided by the district. Topics covered in the presentation include the history and prevalence of active shooter events, the role of law enforcement and civilian response options. view article arw

Daniel Rodriguez was out of town during the 2022 massacre. He told the local newspaper he was “not forced, asked or pressured” to resign.  The Uvalde police chief who was on vacation during the Robb Elementary School shooting — but who also led a department with officers that didn’t receive sufficient active shooter training — resigned on Tuesday. He told the local newspaper it was a decision in the best interest of his family.  Daniel Rodriguez’ resignation comes days after a city-sanctioned review of the May 24, 2022 shooting response cleared all local officers of wrongdoing — and at points praised those officers’ actions. Those findings were in contrast to previous audits of the police response that faulted law enforcement at all levels, in part due to lack of training.  Nineteen children and two teachers were killed in the massacre that’s been defined by a catastrophic police response and failure of leadership resulting in children being trapped with the gunman for more than an hour. Some of the children called 911 from the classrooms, begging for help as responding officers stood in the hallway. view article arw

The Fort Bend County Sheriff's Office said they are still investigating to determine the cause of death and what happened.  Two Houston area teachers were found dead inside a Richmond home on Monday, according to Fort Bend County authorities. Fort Bend County Sheriff's Office Investigations Command told Chron Tuesday morning preliminary findings indicate a murder-suicide. view article arw

Texas teens must get parental OK for birth control A federal appeals court ruled Tuesday that a Texas father can deny his daughters access to contraception, finding that a state parental rights law trumps a federal program that allows some clinics to forgo getting that approval. The ruling by a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fifth Circuit marks the first major decision on birth control access since federal protections for abortion were overturned almost two years ago. view article arw

A third infant nearby also contracted botulism last August. Local and state health officials said there is no public health emergency.  Two newborns living with their families in the same West Texas neighborhood were earlier this year diagnosed with botulism, a rare — and in some cases, fatal — illness caused by a toxin that attacks the body’s nerves. The families, who live within blocks of each other, learned of the diagnosis in mid-January and early February.  A third newborn in the same neighborhood was previously diagnosed with botulism, which can cause difficulty breathing and muscle paralysis, in August.  Hospitals in Lubbock treated the three infants. view article arw

State schools are struggling to outpace the surge of illegal alien students being enrolled in public education, per a recent report by the Heritage Foundation.  According to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, when a child unaccompanied by an adult or legal guardian is apprehended at the southwest border by immigration authorities, the child is transferred to the custody of the Office of Refugee and Resettlement “while they wait for immigration proceedings.”  The ORR subsequently releases illegal minors to sponsors—who, oftentimes, are family members. Sponsors are considered custodians throughout the child’s immigration proceedings. view article arw