Free Republic

HOUSTON – Two students have died and several others were injured when a Houston Independent School District bus fell off the 610 South Loop on Tuesday morning. The Houston Fire Department confirmed the student's death to KHOU 11 News. Houston TranStar reports the crash occurred at Telephone Road around 7 a.m. Investigators with the Houston Police Department said a late-model Buick LeSabre on the left-hand side of the bus thought that a car was going to drift into their lane. The Buick then shift over into the school bus to avoid the other vehicle. At that time, the school bus...

HOUSTON -- When you first walk into a classroom at the Houston Independent School District’s newest campus, it seems like any other classroom on the first day of school. But look and listen more closely, and you’ll realize this one is in a class of its own. “Parents are here because they chose to be here,” said Terry Grier, HISD’s superintendent. Grier was on hand for the Monday opening of HISD’s new Arabic Immersion Magnet School (AIMS), the nation’s first public immersion school for the Arabic language. District officials say 132 Pre-K and Kindergarten students from many different ethnic backgrounds...

Those traveling down Durham Drive may have noticed a new sign recently at 812 W. 28th St., the site of the former Holden Elementary and interim facility for HISD’s Energy Institute High School. The bright green sign for HISD’s new Arabic Immersion Magnet School (AIMS) is up, repairs and enhancements are underway on the campus and Principal Kate Adams is preparing to welcome the first batch of students this fall.

A high-ranking HISD administrator and the principal of Wheatley High School have been charged in Alabama with felony drug possession and, two months later, are no longer employed by the school district. Dana Bost, HISD's chief of high schools, and her fiance, Principal Ronald Rodriguez, were arrested Oct. 18, accused of having marijuana and cocaine in their rental car while driving in Mobile County, court records show. The Houston Independent School District sent a message to administrators Monday announcing that Bost and Rodriguez had left HISD. The memo did not mention the criminal charges. Superintendent Terry Grier said Bost told...

2 men testified in church court about the former HISD official Copyright 2005 Houston Chronicle A Greek Orthodox priest and retired Houston school district official has been defrocked by church leaders after an investigation into sexual abuse allegations stemming from incidents in the 1970s in Ohio. Gabriel Barrow, who was suspended from duties at St. John the Theologian Church in Webster last year, was permanently removed from the priesthood, said Nikki Stephanopoulos of the Greek Orthodox Archdiocese of America. --snip-- He started at HISD in 1979 as a history teacher at Barbara Jordan High School.

An HISD teacher's assistant is fired for his punishment of two autistic kids. Ten-year-old Mohammad McNeil is supposed to be in school, but neither he nor his eight-year-old brother has been to class since last Thursday, after a teacher's aide allegedly stuffed the kids into the bathroom at Gross Elementary as a punishment for misbehaving. Their father, Travis McNeil, said, "That's not even punishment, that's more like persecution. That's exactly what it is. You know, that's like persecution. Nobody's kid should be put up to that." Travis says the incident was especially traumatic because both kids are learning disabled. Ishmal...

Parents claim HISD cover-up in son's alleged rape Suit says autistic boy, 13, attacked at summer school By HARVEY RICE Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle The parents of a developmentally disabled, autistic boy filed a federal lawsuit Monday accusing HISD of covering up an investigation into allegations that he was sodomized during a summer school program two years ago. "It's frightening knowing whoever hurt my child is around other people's children," said the boy's 40-year-old mother. The Houston woman and her 47-year-old husband allege in their lawsuit that their son was attacked a day before his 14th birthday while attending Camp...

HISD may promote failing students to cut dropouts By JASON SPENCER and JO ANN ZUÑIGA Copyright 2004 Houston Chronicle Houston high school students who've failed core subjects such as English or math would get to move on to the next grade under a proposal HISD trustees are considering as part of the district's effort to reduce its dropout rate. Dropping the core course requirement puts the Houston Independent School District at odds with other Harris County school systems and urban Texas districts, including one that says it is addressing its dropout problems in other ways. Promoting students who meet HISD's...

SEE IT NOW Video: Report shows HISD records were altered. Video, courtesy of the KHOU-TV, requires the free RealPlayer. As investigators closed in on who they thought was changing dropout records at Sharpstown High School, an administrator there shredded more than 100 boxes of student records, a report shows. A school district investigator's report released Monday is the latest in a pile of documents showing how the Houston Independent School District either mishandled, lost or hid paperwork for thousands of students who may have been dropouts. That shredding incident was the second time this academic year student records disappeared...