CORPUS CHRISTI, Tx — On Wednesday, the Nueces County Commissioners Court unanimously agreed to enter into a memorandum of understanding (MOU) with the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement (TCOLE). The agreement allows the Nueces County Sheriff’s Office, training division to teach the 16-hour recertification course for the School Marshals program. Back in 2013, the Texas Legislature created the School Marshal Program following the mass shooting at Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown, CT. This program allows school employees to be trained in protecting students from deadly situations. They need to be an employee of the school district, have a permit to carry a firearm, and go through a training program. view article arw

MESQUITE, Texas - A student who brought a gun into a Mesquite charter school on Monday morning was shot by police. The shooting happened shortly before 9 a.m. at the Pioneer Technology & Arts Academy in Mesquite - that's near Dallas. When police arrived the situation quickly escalated. "We are grateful for the fact that no children were injured in this incident. Also none of our officers sustained any injury in this incident," said Sergeant Curtis Phillip from the Mesquite Police Department. view article arw

A trial over the Barbers Hill school district’s dress code will test Texas’ new CROWN Act, which prohibits discrimination based on hairstyles.  At 18, Darryl George has spent most of his junior year at Barbers Hill High School separated from his classmates, sentenced to a mix of in-school suspension or class at an alternative education campus. He’s allegedly denied hot food and isn’t able to access teaching materials.  His offense: wearing his hair in long locs.  Since the start of the school year, George and Barbers Hill school officials have been locked in a standoff over his hairstyle — and whether the district’s dress code violates a new state law that prohibits discrimination based on hairstyles.  George, who is Black, says in legal filings that the district’s monthslong punishment has demeaned him and impeded his education.  The Texas Tribune thanks its sponsors. Become one. view article arw

Suspect charged with capital murder in case that has shaken community Over a hundred people filled the grounds of Livingston’s Texas Craft Fair on Wednesday evening to remember 11-year-old Audrii Cunningham. Attendees lit candles and prayed for the family. Don Steven McDougal has been charged with capital murder in the death of 11-year-old Audrii Cunningham, whose body was found Tuesday in the waters of the Trinity River. The 42-year-old man who authorities believe is tied to the homicide has a decades-long criminal history in counties across the region and had been identified as a person of interest in the girl’s disappearance for several days. view article arw

CV NEWS FEED // A library at a Texas high school contains over 200 books that concerned parents say contain sexually inappropriate content. One of the parents is Bonnie Wallace, who is currently petitioning Llano High School to remove 207 explicit books from its library. Wallace’s child is a former Llano student. Per a February 1 report from Texas Scorecard, the mother called the books “adult erotica.” She said that it is “mind boggling” that the school provides them for minor students to check out. The Daily Signal on Friday published an email that Llano Principal Scott Patrick sent to Wallace last month. In it, Patrick told the mother that a “reconsideration committee” will review one book at a time. The committee was to include an unspecified number of students at the school. The principal added that each review would take “roughly 30 days.” view article arw

UVALDE, TEXAS — Uvalde CISD will be looking to set the gold standard with their emergency response plan. This goal comes about a month after the Department of Justice's scathing report. The report found multiple failures in the response to the 2022 mass shooting, in which 21 people were killed. Superintendent Ashley Chohlis says they will now have subcommittees to address the DOJ's recommendations for the district. view article arw

DALLAS — The 16-year-old student shot at by police more than a dozen times for bringing a firearm into a Mesquite school earlier this week was armed with a handgun, authorities told The Dallas Morning News Wednesday.  Officers were dispatched about 8:50 a.m. Monday to the Pioneer Technology and Arts Academy campus in the 3200 block of Oates Drive, near San Marcus Avenue, for reports a student was in the school’s office with a gun and was refusing to put it down.  Officers tried to negotiate with the student to get him to drop the weapon and, when he did not comply, police said three officers fired a total of 19 rounds.  The student did not fire any shots, police told The News Tuesday. view article arw

The request to remove several court orders marks the first time the state has made any major attempt to get out from under an injunction issued in the 13-year-old case.  State welfare officials want a federal judge to lift several court-imposed orders designed to improve the Texas foster care system, insisting they have complied with most of the demands at a cost of $100 million in tax dollars to reform the way it cares for abused and neglected children. view article arw

MESQUITE - On Tuesday, students returned to school at The Pioneer Technology and Arts Academy, where counselors were on hand for anyone who needed it after a 16-year-old student brought a gun to school and was injured by police the day before. At 8:49 a.m. Monday, a school administrator made a 911 call about a person in an office with a firearm and what police called, "intent to harm." view article arw

A former Katy ISD football coach was sentenced to 120 days in jail following accusations that he touched students inappropriately, according to records. Lonnie Teagle, a former Paetow High School coach, pleaded guilty to an improper relationship with a student. On top of the 120 days in jail, Teagle also received eight years of deferred adjudication. view article arw

CARTHAGE – Carthage Independent School District announced Tuesday they are welcoming a new director of safety and security. According to our news partner KETK, Darrin Peeples joins the district after being a Texas Game Warden for almost 14 years. Peeples has a bachelor’s in agriculture leadership and development from Texas A&M University. view article arw

Suspect, who lived in trailer behind family, likely to be charged with capital murder - Authorities found the body of 11-year-old Audrii Cunningham in the Trinity River on Tuesday after lowering the water level while searching for her, Polk County officials said.  Audrii was last seen Thursday morning in the 100 block of Lakeside Drive in Livingston as she set off for school, toting her camouflage backpack, officials said. Her family reported her missing when she failed to come home from school.  Authorities classified her disappearance as an abduction in an Amber Alert notification, which ended upon the discovery of her body.  “My heart aches with this news,” Polk County Sheriff Byron Lyons said. “I express with my deepest sympathies and condolences to everyone who knew, who cared for and loved Audrii.” view article arw

We are learning more about the death of a Brandeis Special Needs Instructional Assistant. The Bexar County Medical Examiner said 73-year-old Alfred Jimenez died from a blunt force head injury and they're classifying his death as a homicide. Northside ISD said they can't discuss specifics about student behavior. However, they said the student involved in the incident with Jimenez is not in their assigned classes. The district is working with the student's parents to determine how to meet the student's specialized needs. view article arw

Annunciation House, a network of shelters that serves migrants, sought relief from the attorney general’s demand to immediately release information about its clients. Paxton accused the religious group of smuggling humans across the southern border.  A Catholic nonprofit that operates several shelters in El Paso sued the Office of the Attorney General earlier this month to delay the release of records after the state agency demanded the immediate release of extensive documentation about the immigrant clients that it serves along the border.  The Consumer Protection Division of the attorney general’s office launched an investigation into Annunciation House on Feb. 7, demanding the release of documentation within one day, the small nonprofit requested an extension to review what information the organization was legally required to turn over. view article arw

The National Guard deployment, tasked with helping Texas build its border wall, will be South Dakota’s fifth amid the border crisis.  South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem has ordered the state’s National Guard troops to deploy to the southern border to help Texas deal with record-shattering waves of illegal immigration.  Ms. Noem, a Republican, said that 60 South Dakota National Guard soldiers will deploy to the U.S.-Mexico border later this spring, on a rolling basis over a period of three months.  “The border in a warzone, so we’re sending soldiers,” Ms. Noem said in a Feb. 20 statement. view article arw

North East ISD may remove health class requirement, calls for parent and student feedback. SAN ANTONIO- North East ISD is considering making big changes to its curriculum. The district may remove the health class requirement entirely. Health classes cover subjects like nutrition, mental health, and sex education view article arw

The leader of the North East Independent School District is asking parents, students and teachers to be mindful of door safety protocols. Sean Maika, the district’s superintendent since 2019, made the comments during a board meeting last week and told the San Antonio Report that he planned to release more messaging in the coming days to reiterate the district’s policies. view article arw

The 2024-2025 Graham ISD school calendar will remain as a modified four-day calendar after approval from the GISD Board of Trustees this week. It was reported to the board in November 2023 that the Graham ISD Calendar Committee had begun the planning process for establishing a calendar for the 2024-2025 school year. The district’s calendars are created by the committee, made up of staff, parents and community members, who establish several drafts which are narrowed down to two for school board approval. The committee reviewed parent, guardian and staff data regarding the modified four-day school calendar and worked to create two calendar drafts. The committee was considering various options which were discussed and narrowed down. view article arw

The Marshall Police Department said that they’ve arrested a 23-year-old woman following allegations of an “improper relationship between a teacher and a 16-year-old student” at a Marshall ISD school. The case was reportedly brought to MPD’s attention on Feb. 14 by Marshall ISD Police Department. MISD PD was notified by Superintendent Dr. Richelle Langley after learning about the allegations from MISD School Board President Brad Burris. view article arw

Winnsboro ISD and the Texas High School Bass Association said that a student died after passing out at the weigh-in for a Lake Cypress Springs bass tournament on Saturday. Winnsboro ISD officials said that Kale Robinson, a junior, had passed out at the weigh-in for the THSBA Lake Bob Sandlin/Lake Cypress Springs tournament and then had to be taken to a local hospital where he later died. view article arw

Fort Worth ISD has released more details on the district layoffs announced earlier this week. Superintendent Angelica Ramsey said she waited to reveal the details until the impacted workers could be notified directly first. On Friday, a district spokesperson said a total of 133 positions will be reduced or eliminated. Four positions were funded from local district funds while 129 positions were funded through federal dollars. view article arw

An 18-year-old student was recently arrested at his high school in connection to a double murder at a Texas gas station, police told news outlets. San Antonio police took Joshua Castro into custody on Wednesday, Feb. 7, at Oliver Wendell Holmes High School on the city’s northwest side, WOAI reported. Castro is accused of planning and executing a Dec. 6 robbery that ended with a 34-year-old man and his 15-year-old son shot dead at a gas station, police told the station. Investigators say Castro communicated with the victims on social media and set up a meeting at the location to sell a handgun — but other messages sent to an accomplice suggest his true intention was always to rob them. view article arw

Aphysical altercation between a student and teacher at a Tennessee elementary school left one man with symptoms of a concussion and a principal in handcuffs. On February 2, a fourth-grade girl attending Southwest Elementary School in Williston, Tennessee — about 45 miles east of Memphis — was sent to the classroom of fifth-grade social studies teacher Demetrious Bradley because she was "acting out," according to reports. While in his classroom, Bradley approached the girl, but she responded in violence, allegedly slapping Bradley's hands several times. She then reportedly grabbed a metal Stanley cup and struck Bradley several times in his face, striking his jaw and temple. view article arw

Authorities identified the gunwoman as Genesse Ivonne Moreno. The 7-year-old accompanying her remains in critical condition after also being shot.  Several law enforcement agencies are actively investigating the motives behind a Sunday shooting at pastor Joel Osteen’s Lakewood Church in Houston, which has one of the nation’s largest congregations. The shooter, a woman who police identified as 36-year-old Genesse Ivonne Moreno, was fatally shot by off-duty officers. No one else at the church died.  Moreno entered the church at 1:55 p.m. Sunday wearing a trench coat and a backpack and carrying an AR-15-style rifle, police said. Officers said they are still investigating how Moreno obtained the gun. A 7-year-old child, believed to be Moreno's biological son, accompanied her into the church. view article arw

After nearly seven years, Kaput Feral Hog Bait is returning to the market for Texas farmers looking for a way to deal with the state’s rampant feral hog problem. The bait containing warfarin, a blood thinner that is poisonous to hogs, was registered for statewide use Feb. 1 for people with a pesticide applicator license. Texas Agricultural Commissioner Sid Miller fully supports its use in the state. The product is expected to be available on shelves in the spring. “It’ll eradicate them. If you have hogs on your property that are devastating your crops and your field, you can put this bait out and eliminate the problem,” Miller said. “It goes right to the source of the problem.” It was first approved back in 2017 with support from Miller and the backing of the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service. Miller said his team had done research at the time that demonstrated it was safe. view article arw

Nonmedical refusals come as legislators try to weaken vaccine rules  Nonmedical vaccine exemptions continued to hit record levels among Texas schoolchildren last year amid state lawmakers’ attempts to weaken immunization requirements further.  During the 2022-23 school year, 3.24% of Texas kindergartners received an exemption “for reasons of conscience,” which includes religious beliefs, from at least one immunization required to attend school, according to data from the Texas Department of State Health Services. That’s almost double the rate from 10 years ago, data shows. Texas is one of 41 states that saw an increase in school vaccine exemptions, which reached a record 3% nationally, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. view article arw

A new report found that coral off Texas’ coast could die off by 2040 because of climate change. GALVESTON — Biologist Brooke Zurita lowered a turkey baster into a tank’s still water. She squeezed a stinky, chocolate-milk-colored mixture with plankton, algae and fish eggs over a piece of rescued, wild coral. The food swirled like a wispy cloud. Zurita and her team at Moody Gardens feed 150 coral fragments from five species at least once a week, in addition to giving daily doses of amino acids. The coral need to stay alive because they could change the future. Scientists took them from a federally-protected area some 100 miles off the Texas coast called Flower Garden Banks to create a reserve population in case the Gulf’s wild coral die. view article arw

One student sustained minor injuries during an accident involving a La Joya Independent School District school bus, the district announced. In a letter sent to parents, the district stated that the accident occurred at 4:20 p.m. Thursday while a school bus was transporting students home near 5 Mile Line and La Homa Road. view article arw

t's a growing concern around the U.S. and across the world, with measles outbreaks becoming more common. The Minnesota Department of Health reported the first Minnesota case Monday in an unvaccinated 16-month old who has now passed the highly contagious virus to a sibling. It's the second in Minnesota. view article arw

In the far, far suburbs of Houston, Texas, three teenagers are talking at a coffee shop about a clandestine bookshelf in their public school classroom. It's filled with books that have been challenged or banned. "Some of the books that I've read are books like Hood Feminism, The Poet X, Gabi, A Girl in Pieces," says one of the girls. She's a 17-year-old senior with round glasses and long braids. The books, she says, sparked her feminist consciousness. "I just see, especially in my community, a lot of women being talked down upon and those books [were] really nice to read."  These students live in a state that has banned more books than nearly any other, according to PEN America. The Texas State Board of Education passed a policy in late 2023 prohibiting what it calls "sexually explicit, pervasively vulgar or educationally unsuitable books in public schools." Over the past two years, Texas teachers have lost jobs or been pressured to resign after making challenged books available to students. view article arw

Kris Brown felt the jury made the right decision — the only acceptable decision — in reaching a guilty verdict for Jennifer Crumbley, the mother of a teenager who killed four students in a Michigan school shooting. Crumbley was convicted last week of four counts of involuntary manslaughter in connection with the 2021 homicides. “It would be crushing for the gun violence prevention movement in these factual circumstances not to get a conviction on all counts,” said Brown, president of Brady: United Against Gun Violence, a gun control advocacy group. The prosecution characterized Crumbley as a negligent mother, arguing that she did not respond to multiple red flags about her son Ethan’s mental state, including a warning from school personnel on the day of the crime. Moreover, the prosecution pointed out that she did not safely secure the gun that he used in the mass shooting, which also caused nonfatal injuries to six students and one teacher at Oxford High School. view article arw

Kris Brown felt the jury made the right decision — the only acceptable decision — in reaching a guilty verdict for Jennifer Crumbley, the mother of a teenager who killed four students in a Michigan school shooting. Crumbley was convicted last week of four counts of involuntary manslaughter in connection with the 2021 homicides. “It would be crushing for the gun violence prevention movement in these factual circumstances not to get a conviction on all counts,” said Brown, president of Brady: United Against Gun Violence, a gun control advocacy group. The prosecution characterized Crumbley as a negligent mother, arguing that she did not respond to multiple red flags about her son Ethan’s mental state, including a warning from school personnel on the day of the crime. Moreover, the prosecution pointed out that she did not safely secure the gun that he used in the mass shooting, which also caused nonfatal injuries to six students and one teacher at Oxford High School. view article arw

Several middle school students at Keefer Crossing Middle School were hospitalized Tuesday afternoon after ingesting THC-laced gummies, according to officials with New Caney Independent School District. The seven students were taken to Texas Children’s Hospital and Kingwood Hospital. view article arw

A handgun was recovered at an elementary school's campus on Tuesday, according to the Spring Independent School District. The incident happened at Ponderosa Elementary School in northwest Harris County. In an email sent to parents, district officials said the campus was placed on a brief "secure" hold after the gun was found by one of the campus police officers. view article arw

Authorities identified the gunwoman as Genesse Ivonne Moreno. The 7-year-old accompanying her remains in critical condition after also being shot.  Several law enforcement agencies are actively investigating the motives behind a Sunday shooting at pastor Joel Osteen’s Lakewood Church in Houston, which has one of the nation’s largest congregations. The shooter, a woman who police identified as 36-year-old Genesse Ivonne Moreno, was fatally shot by off-duty officers. No one else at the church died.  Moreno entered the church at 1:55 p.m. Sunday wearing a trench coat and a backpack and carrying an AR-15-style rifle, police said. Officers said they are still investigating how Moreno obtained the gun. A 7-year-old child, believed to be Moreno's biological son, accompanied her into the church. view article arw