Katy ISD incredulous severe weather decision proves district is dysfunctional, cares little about student welfare

Letter to the Editor by Brian Richardson
Posted 1/30/23

To the Editor:

Given that students were in danger from tornadoes on Jan. 24 and tornadoes are a normal occurrence during severe thunderstorms, it seems that required attendance on Jan. 24 was …

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Katy ISD incredulous severe weather decision proves district is dysfunctional, cares little about student welfare

Posted

To the Editor:

Given that students were in danger from tornadoes on Jan. 24 and tornadoes are a normal occurrence during severe thunderstorms, it seems that required attendance on Jan. 24 was ill-advised, especially given the well-disseminated early warnings from the National Weather Service. Contrast that day with the fact that school is easily cancelled when it suits Katy ISD and that many Houston-area school districts did cancel classes. All the emails that spewed from Katy ISD leading up to the Jan. 24 as well as on that day (at 09:31, 11:17, 11:29, 12:06, 13:49, 14:15) are just evidence of Katy ISD’s bad decision-making leading to a reactionary stance of “OMG what have we done!”, self-exculpation, feigned concern and subsequent apologies. And then there was the inability of the Katy ISD computer systems to even deliver the flurry of Katy ISD emails meant to mollify parents, which in retrospect was probably a good thing since their lack of realistic, accurate weather information only served to exacerbate the event.

In summation, Katy ISD, by deciding to go ahead with school in the face of severe weather warnings, created an emergency event for themselves to be handled, filled schools with students who could not learn in the tumult of the “shelter/don’t shelter” constant rotation in and out of their classrooms and caused concern and consternation in the minds of all parents. What we can all expect is that Katy ISD will never explain the thinking that resulted in their bad decision, will circle the wagons internally to protect themselves from criticism and will blithely go forward in the belief that they can never be held culpable for anything—probably true given the number of people who simply need the schools to babysit. And that need seems to be what Katy ISD was doing with their “kids are better off in school during weather emergencies” decision while simultaneously demonstrating that it’s not true.

Sincerely,

Brian Richardson
Houston

Letter to the Editor