As a vigil occurred throughout city for the Houston ISD pupil who was fatally struck by a practice earlier this week, Superintendent Mike Miles introduced the district could be working with metropolis and county officers on potential security enhancements.
Throughout a Thursday press convention, Miles introduced that he could be working with Houston Mayor John Whitmire and Harris County Decide Lina Hidalgo to discover methods to offer college students with safer alternate options to crossing practice tracks close to Houston ISD campuses.
“I’ll be a part of forces with Mayor Whitmire, Decide Lina Hidalgo and the Houston Police Chief to aim to safe the wanted sources on the 9 most harmful crossings in HISD,” Miles stated. “We’ll work to safe the sources to offer safer pedestrian crossing choices for our college students.”
On Monday, a Milby Excessive Faculty pupil was caught and killed by a Union Pacific Railroad practice whereas strolling to highschool. Following the incident, the household of the sufferer launched the title of the coed as 15-year-old Sergio Rodriguez.
On Tuesday, Houston ISD introduced that it could offer to help the household with funeral prices. Houston ISD spokesperson Alexandra Elizondo stated Thursday the district was in talks with native nonprofits and a funeral residence.
“The [Milby] principal is working with nonprofits within the space and there’s a native funeral residence that is overlaying the prices,” she stated. “The district is working with different organizations to offer the household with extra help.”
Miles stated there are 118 campuses with close by railroad tracks between a baby’s residence and their college. He stated 9 campuses had been recognized as posing essentially the most threat to college students and could be the district’s focus.
Miles recognized the next 9 colleges:
- Milby Excessive Faculty
- Waltrip Excessive Faculty
- McReynolds Center Faculty
- Forest Brook Center Faculty
- Kashmere Excessive Faculty
- Prepare dinner Elementary Faculty
- Burnett Elementary Faculty
- Tijerina Elementary Faculty
- Roosevelt Elementary Faculty
The district says in some instances it provides transportation providers to college students who are usually not in any other case lined by bus routes.
“Households can work with their campus directors to make a transportation request in these instances,” Miles stated. “These requests can be robotically authorized for elementary college college students. That is what we do already. This isn’t new.”
In the course of the press convention, Miles additionally reiterated that delays brought on by trains close to campuses haven’t and won’t depend in opposition to college students.
“College students ought to by no means crawl beneath a practice or try to beat a practice,” he stated. “Their security is paramount and no threat is price it.”
Since Rodriguez’s demise, his household has filed a wrongful demise lawsuit in opposition to Union Pacific. The corporate stated it’s investigating the incident.
“Union Pacific shares Houston’s grief following Monday’s heartbreaking occasion when a youngster made a tragic determination to attempt to outrun a transferring practice,” Union Pacific stated in a press release. “We need to remind college students and others to solely cross practice tracks at designated crossings and by no means ignore practice horns or the lights and security gates. Our hearts exit to the household, college students and the practice crew who witnessed this horrible incident.”
