January 15, 2020 – Our hearts are heavy today as we mourn the loss of one of our students. The past 24 hours have been incredibly difficult for Bellaire High School and the Houston ISD community. A tragedy of this magnitude is difficult to comprehend. As a parent, I am deeply saddened and angered by this horrific act of violence. Details are still unfolding, and we may not know for some time why this happened. Unfortunately, HISD is not immune to the plague of gun violence afflicting school campuses nationwide. 

We are committed to vigilantly protecting students and staff at our schools. HISD will continue to evaluate our security measures, as we regularly do, in order to maximize the safety of our children and staff. I want to thank all local law enforcement agencies, which acted swiftly to respond and apprehend a suspect. I am also grateful to the principal of Bellaire High School and the rest of the staff who took appropriate action to ensure no other students were physically harmed during the incident. Every child deserves a safe school environment.

Classes at Bellaire High School will resume tomorrow, January 16. Crisis counselors will be available to Bellaire students and staff for as long as they are needed. There will be additional HISD police officers on campus and patrols around the campus and extra administrative personnel to ensure the school is safe and secure.