A Bryan ISD school nurse wants people to know that there’s more to her job than Band-Aids and ice packs. Fanette Parks, a school nurse at Bryan Collegiate High School, said it’s a stereotype that’s part of a larger issue facing her field. Public schools in Texas aren’t legally required to have a school nurse on staff, according to Laurie Smith, president of the Texas School Nurses Organization. As the school nursing industry faces a nationwide shortage, advocacy groups like this one are looking for solutions. view article

Law enforcement determined that the phone used to make a threat against Henderson ISD Wednesday was in Europe and nowhere near any of the campuses. On Wednesday morning, the Henderson Police Department received information about a possible threat. Other agencies, including the Rusk County Sheriff's Office, the Texas Department of Public Safety and the FBI, along with Henderson police tried to track down where the threat came from. view article

A Corrigan-Camden ISD teacher has been arrested after authorities accused him of an inappropriate relationship with a student. According to information released by the Texas Department of Public Safety, Anthony Jernigan, 35, was arrested and booked into the Polk County Jail on multiple charges of online solicitation of a minor, a third-degree felony, and improper relationship with a student, a second-degree felony. view article

A Klein Independent School District teacher was arrested and charged with several crimes in connection to accessing inappropriate images of minors online, Klein ISD announced on Wednesday. Sebastian Baraldi was taken into custody this morning. He is charged with five counts of possession of child pornography and is held on a $250,000 bond. view article

Klein Independent School District reported a teacher on one of their high school campuses has been arrested related to child pornography charges. According to Montgomery County court records, Sebastian Baraldi was arrested at his home in Spring and charged with five felony counts of Possession of Child Pornography. view article

A suicidal high school student taken into custody at North Shore Senior High School, sitting handcuffed in the back of a patrol car, apparently grabbed a gun hidden in his clothing and shot himself in the back of the head, authorities said. view article

Texas substitute teacher is fired for washing girl with Down syndrome's mouth out using SOAP after accusing 13 year-old of cursing at her.  You can't unsee that video. Like, you really assaulted my baby by putting soap in her mouth,' Celestine told ABC13, recalling the traumatic incident that happened to her child.   Celestine said she received an email from the Cambridge School Director Leslie Johnson on Tuesday afternoon.   Harmoney was working with the substitute teacher shortly before 10am that day, according to the email.   'While doing her work, Harmoney cursed at the substitute.'  the director wrote. But Celestine said her daughter's speaking ability is limited and was simply asking a question.   '[Harmony] said, 'What you doing?' And she has a speech impediment because she (has) Down syndrome. 'And the lady answered her,  view article

Gladewater ISD closed four of its schools early this week due to flu-related absences of both students and teachers. view article

AUSTIN, Texas (FOX 44) – Governor Greg Abbott has issued a statement following the U.S. Department of Justice’s (DOJ) release of its Critical Incident Review of the Response to the Mass Shooting at Robb Elementary School. Gov. Abbott said on Thursday afternoon: view article

A former principal and assistant principal at J.L. Everhart Elementary School in Longview ISD face new charges in relation to allegations they abused special education students. Cassandra Renee James, 49, former principal at J.L. Everhart, and Linda Kaye Brown Lister, 62, former assistant principal at the campus, were each indicted on a single charge of endangering a child in 2022. view article

Danny Senkow said a man dragged him off a bus filled with children in a shocking and painful attack. view article

Austin Independent School District is warning of people falsely identifying themselves as district police officers. Austin ISD's Police Department said callers are claiming the person has an arrest warrant and will then ask for sensitive information. view article

A Wilbarger County jury took just 20 minutes on Tuesday, Feb. 6 to convict a former Vernon Independent School District coach for having sex with a 16-year-old girl. The jury found Billy Joe Boyce, 64, guilty on one count of sexual performance by a child and one count of indecency with a child. view article

The Texas Department of State Health Services recently launched a Respiratory Illness Interactive Dashboard, which shows trends in COVID-19 and RSV, as well as influenza. According to the latest data published by DSHS, all three illnesses are trending upward. School districts across the state are seeing the reality of this trend first-hand, with an unusually high number of students, teachers, faculty, and staff members staying home due to illness. This eventually prompted the administration of the Olney Independent School District in Archer County to announce on Monday, January 22, 2024, that the district would be canceling classes in an effort to mitigate the spread of seasonal respiratory illnesses. view article

An average of 13.9% of Texans lived below the poverty line from 2018 to 2022, down from 16% of Texans in poverty from 2013 to 2017. Pooja Salhotra, The Texas Tribune view article

Dylan Dorrell would have turned 21 on Friday. A devoted athlete, friend, brother and son, Dylan’s loved ones know he had a bright future ahead of him.  But his parents Gus and Lisa Dorrell choose to focus on the lasting impact of Dylan’s life and his service to others instead of what could have been if it weren’t for his unexpected passing.  On Aug. 13, 2020, 17-year-old Dylan was finishing up a workout with the Guyer High School cross county team at South Lakes Park when he collapsed. view article

You may recall a few weeks ago that Texas Values was involved in a School Health Advisory Committee (SHAC) meeting at Fort Worth ISD and our conclusion was that sex education curriculum called “Choosing the Best” was a positive step forward, because the other option was bad. At that meeting, and prior to it, we did not have full access to the “Choosing the Best” curriculum and now we do, which is why we were cautious in our support at the last meeting. However, we have now found out that the “Choosing the Best” curriculum has LGBT language, condom instruction, and Plan B abortion pill content, all details that we weren’t aware of before and now the publisher is refusing to remove this very concerning content. view article

LUFKIN — Georgia DeVries misses sleeping in a car. “It was safer than any house I’ve been in,” the 17-year-old said. By her count, she’s lived in at least 13 different places since the sixth grade, including multiple homes with her mom, extended stays with friends and family, and four trips to behavioral health clinics.  Then last November, after staying with her aunt, she ended up in her now ex-boyfriend’s broken-down Mitsubishi parked on his family’s property.  It wasn’t much, but she felt at peace — most of the time.  This is how many teenagers in rural Texas experience homelessness: a revolving door of sheltered and unsheltered living, friends’ couches, stints with extended family, nights spent outdoors. Homeless shelters are not an option in Lufkin, a town of 34,000, 90 miles south of Tyler, the nearest major city. Shelters here don’t take unaccompanied minors without reports of violent abuse.  A dearth of shelters is just one way homeless teens in rural areas are at a more significant disadvantage than their urban peers, experts say. A lack of good-paying jobs, poverty and drug abuse can be more common.  Get our biggest scoops and breaking stories, delivered to your inbox view article

An Eastland ISD teacher has been charged with Improper Relationship between Educator and Student. William James Culverhouse was taken into custody Thursday on one count of Improper Relationship between Educator and Student, according to Eastland County Jail records. The Eastland Police Department told KTAB and KRBC the Texas Rangers are handling the investigation into Culverhouse, so they are unable to release any additional information at this time. view article

Madison High School in southwest Houston was placed on lockdown Friday after recent fights and a new ban against cell phones. Several students walked out in protest that same afternoon. Houston Independent School District officials told ABC13 there have been multiple fights on campus recently. view article

A Mansfield ISD middle-schooler collapsed and stopped breathing during a basketball game due to an undiscovered heart condition, only surviving because a parent jumped in to perform CPR and saved her life. 14-year-old Cirye Carpenter, nicknamed Cici, now needs open-heart surgery but is grateful for the heroic actions of the woman she now calls her second mother. view article

Denison ISD is investigating after an incident where a student was left on a school bus Wednesday. The district said the child fell asleep during morning drop off, and they said they will take appropriate action after their investigation into the incident. view article

In February of 2021, a massive failure of the Texas electric grid in a winter storm pitched millions of Texans into freezing darkness for days. While people struggled to stay safe and warm, state utility regulators responded by raising the price of electricity to its maximum allowable limit. The decision ultimately added $16 billion to Texas electricity bills. On Tuesday, the Supreme Court of Texas heard arguments over whether what regulators did was against the law. view article

A transgender teenager who admitted to plotting to shoot up three schools and wrote a disturbing violent manifesto has been sentenced to six years in prison.  The 18th Judicial District Attorney's Office on Wednesday said the defendant, William Whitworth, who identified as "Lilly" and – according to a DA spokesperson – was in the process of transitioning to female at the time of her arrest.  She was given credit of 306 days for time served from the time of her arrest in March 2023. view article

DENISON, Texas (KTEN) — A Denison elementary student was left on her school bus for several hours on Wednesday morning. The Denison Independent School District said the four-year-old fell asleep on the bus. She was not found until Lamar Elementary called the student's mother, Leslie Waldrop, to alert her that her daughter never arrived. Waldrop put out a Facebook post expressing her disappointment in the school district. view article

AUSTIN, Texas — A 17-year-old student was arrested on Monday after allegedly bringing a stolen firearm to John B. Connally High School and pointing it at someone in the parking lot, according to an arrest affidavit. The court document said Pflugerville ISD officers responded to the school located at 13212 N. Lamar Blvd. around 12:20 p.m. Two students reported an incident that occurred in the parking lot. view article

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention is urging health care providers to be "on alert" for patients with symptoms of measles - a virus declared eliminated in the U.S. in 2000 - after nearly two dozen cases have been reported across the country in the past month. Between Dec. 1 and Jan. 23, the CDC has been notified of 23 measles cases, including seven "direct importations" by international travelers and two outbreaks with more than five cases each, according to a letter the federal agency sent to clinicians last week. Most of the cases were among children and teenagers who had not been vaccinated against the virus, and nine of them were reported by the health department in Philadelphia - a city a two-hour drive from Baltimore. Additionally, the Virginia Department of Health notified people earlier this month that they may have been exposed to measles if they were at Dulles International Airport on Jan. 3 or at Ronald Reagan Washington National Airport on Jan. 4. Read more at: https://www.star-telegram.com/entertainment/living/article284898147.html#storylink=cpy view article

KLEIN, Texas (KTRK) -- Police detained a person of interest on Tuesday afternoon after Klein Forest High School and three other nearby campuses were under "secure status" due to a threat posted online. Klein Independent School District said it investigated the threat at about 1:50 p.m., intending to resume classes and securely dismiss students. The district also placed Greenwood Forest Elementary, Wunderlich Intermediate, and Vistas High School Program on the secure status due to their proximity to Klein Forest, the target of the threat. According to Klein ISD, the Harris County Sheriff's Office, Harris County Precinct 4 Constable's Office, the FBI, and Homeland Security were involved in the investigation, leading to a detainment. Authorities didn't say who they took into custody, but by 3 p.m., the schools had dismissed students. view article

An Humble ISD teacher is recovering after hitting his head against a brick wall while trying to break up a fight. The district said it happened on Friday at approximately 10:44 a.m. at Atascocita Middle School. Two students reportedly got into a fight in the hallway during a passing period. That's when school personnel and a campus police officer responded to deescalate the situation. view article

All schools in the Moody Independent School District on Tuesday implemented “secure protocols” out of an abundance of caution after Moody Elementary School received a bomb threat Tuesday morning. “The threat did NOT indicate that there was a bomb on campus,” the school district wrote in a social media post. The school district’s police department is currently investigating the threat and “has advised that there is NO credible threat to any Moody campus,” the school district further wrote. view article

Authorities have detained a person of interest following an online threat to Klein Independent School District (Klein ISD) schools. The district implemented safety measures after receiving an online threat aimed at Klein Forest High School. As a precautionary step, four nearby schools—Klein Forest High School, Vistas High School, Wunderlich Intermediate, and Greenwood Forest Elementary—were placed in secure status. view article

AMARILLO, Texas (KVII) — Counselors from area schools attended a conference hosted by Region 16 in Amarillo to learn how kids are targeted by child predators on social media. “We just want to get ahead of the game and offer training for these counselors and helping these kids be more vigilant,” said Michelle Macha. Last week, eight people were arrested in two different stings for online solicitation of a minor. view article

Kingwood High School was placed on lockdown Monday morning while police investigated whether a student brought a weapon on campus, according to a message that Principal Michael Nasra sent to parents Monday.   Houston Police Department information officer Jodi Silva said they received a call at 10:15 a.m. that two students got in a fight and one threatened to shoot the other. HPD and Humble ISD police located the students and did not find any weapons. Information spreading on Humble ISD parent groups that weapons were found is incorrect, Silva confirmed. view article

As districts across Texas grapple with how to implement new state safety requirements, Leander ISD is moving forward with forming its own police department. House Bill 3, passed in 2023, mandated districts to staff an armed security guard on every campus by Sept. 1. However, Leander ISD claimed a good-cause exception, which provides districts more time and options to satisfy the law.  District officials said creating an in-house police department is the best path forward, but they anticipate facing challenges along the way due to a lack of funding and competition in hiring. view article

West Virginia’s Republican-dominated Legislature pushed forward a slate of contentious bills Wednesday that would arm teachers, allow people to sue libraries over books that offend them and restrict where transgender kids can use the bathroom at school.  Described by conservatives as efforts to protect children while they learn, the legislation comes as GOP-led state Legislatures across the country are embracing bills expanding gun rights and restricting LGBTQ+ rights.  Smith said the quote, "Band-Aids don't stop bullet holes" perfectly "summarized what this case is about." She appeared to be quoting Swift's 2014 smash hit "Bad Blood," which says "Band-Aids don't fix bullet holes, you say sorry just for show." view article