Being on the Underside of AISD Priorities

This past week, the City of Austin bore witness to a scary scene as 5 gunmen shot and killed two residents in a suspected gambling house and a police shootout ensued. One gunman was shot and killed, despite his being armed with an AK-47 and body armor. Others were captured throughout the day, but some ran loose in the blocked off area in north east Austin. SOME schools were closed in the area, the police confident that the gunmen could not slink past their blockade.

My mother teaches at Winn elementary in this area, a low-income and mostly minority underperforming school was decided by the AISD school district to remain open during this melee. In addition to my mother's safety, especially considering her already astounding 30 year career, I was really concerned with the criteria used to determine which schools needed to be closed. As inconventient as it may be to close additional schools (in addition to the already 7 closed), the safety of children, faculty, and staff has to be of paramount importance.

Consider if one of the gunmen got through, or stray bullets from the assault rifles they reportedly had and were firing. They somehow tried to get away in a Dodge Ram pickup, so the situation was not as undercontrol as they thought. All day these gunmen were loose and my mother was in her class faithfully completing her duties to the children and the district. Given the great tragedies that have befallen us with shootings on campuses, it seems that we would have derived a great sensitivity to those dangers. Thankfully nothing happened to my mother or any of her children, though kids living in the blocked off area still traveled to and from school. This was unacceptable handling of the situation and I think we should all count our blessings.

I will be sending a letter to both the Austin Police Department and the Austin Independent School District to the effect of these thoughts. I doubt that gunmen in similar proximity to City Hall or the downtown area would have espoused such apathy or insensitivity.