Houston Isd Stonewall's video publication, citing technical restrictions

Houston, Texas (KTRK) – When a Sturm Houston met in 2024 and destroyed several communities, 13 investigations learned that an independent Houston school district was caught in the middle of Hartstrasse on the strong toll road.

We know that some school buses are equipped with cameras, so 13 investigates' Mycah Hatfield requested the video under the Texas Public Information Act.

The law enables every member of the public, including journalists, to request records of tax -financed state companies. The data records can contain everything from e -mails and text messages to video or reports. According to the law, government agencies must react within 10 working days.

“The responsibility is that you either provide the information or whether you believe that one of the exceptions applies, you should notify the Attorney General for the State of Texas within 10 days, why the exception you believe that applies?” “There are some exceptions that are very cut and dry and what should be and should not be released, but there are some that are a bit more nuanced, and therefore the Attorney General has to give an opinion on some things.”

HISD, as is the case with many inquiries from ABC13, asked the General Prosecutor's office whether it could hold back the video because it contained sensitive information, possibly a license number.

HISD, the largest school district in Texas with a budget of 2.1 billion US dollars, also argued that they did not have the opportunity to remove or reduce it from the video, even though they have published a highly produced news program on the YouTube page that requires processing.

The AG's office sent HISD a letter last year in which they could hold the video back just because they said they couldn't edit it.

“They claim that the submitted video recordings must be held back to the requester in their shareholders in accordance with Section 522.130 of the government code, since the technological skills for the editorial team of the vehicle data record from the records do not agree. Therefore, they have to hold back the video recordings in their entirety,” said a lawyer at the AG of AG.

13 Investigations asked HISD about this request and other inquiries where no information was provided.

A HISD spokesman who works for a company for public affairs said in a statement by Eyewitness News: “HISD immediately responds to over 1,000 public information inquiries that were submitted by the media and everyday citizens per school year. The district provides public records if they are available.

ABC13 often asks about notes that HISD says that it does not understand or does not understand.

When asked how many weapons had found the new weapons recognition system from HISD at the Lamar High School. This is a system that the district is advertised to protect the students.

HISD's lawyer replied that they have “no reaction -fast information”.

In another request, ABC13 asked how many headmasters and deputy headmaster examined, terminated, re -assigned and stepped down by HISD in the last two school years.

HISD's lawyer asked to define what “examined, terminated, re -assigned and stepped down”, although this used terms that the district has accustomed to parents and the media.

We also wanted to know how much his members of the communication department pay, the team that communicates with the media and the public.

HISD's lawyer asked us what we mean under “District Communications Department”.

A short internet search for the words “Hisd Communications” shows the homepage of the communication department with a list of employees and their titles.

Similarly, when we ask HISD questions, we received answers from an external public affairs team that is based in Los Angeles, and not the full-time communication team of the district that is on the HISD salary statement.

We wanted to know how much you pay this public relations work, so we asked an inquiry that the company mentioned by name and asked about all bills. Hisd said they had no information.

We asked HISD for certain inquiries where no information was published, including the video that said district that it was not possible to work on. “

This statement came from a member of the Outdic team with which HISD worked – the one whose invoices we asked about, but was announced that the district had none.

Marquez said that the law on public information from Texas was ultimately there to be accountable to the government and should be “laid out”, which means that information is considered publicly, unless it falls under certain exceptions.

“We need this type of transparency because we are those who vote for people, and if they spend money, they have to make sure that they have the right supervision of this money and that it is spent as it should,” he said. “If everything was done normally, there is really no problem to share the public information.”

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