LISD Police Accused of Refusing to Respond
By: Lisa Carr
Updated: February 4, 2009
LISD faces accusations that district police officers refused to respond to emergency calls at Estacado High School on more than one occasion. The allegations stem from recordings of recent 911 calls, in which two different people are heard saying LISD officers either aren't allowed or choose not to respond at Estacado. It may sound suspicious, but the LISD administration says it's all a big misunderstanding.
"LISD doesn't respond out there so, we need to send one of our units." That's what a Lubbock police sergeant said to a 911 dispatcher back in December. When he says 'LISD doesn't respond out there,' he's talking about Estacado High School. When this recording surfaced, some folks couldn't believe what they were hearing. Lubbock City Councilman Floyd Price says, "I'm real concerned, if you've got a police agency that's a part of the LISD system and it wasn't responding to the Estacado problems." Then came another 911 call. This one on January 26th. "This is Maria with LISD police. I just gave Mr. Nichols (the LISD Police Chief) the message and he says we're not allowed at Estacado so, if you could send an Lubbock Police Officer."
Superintendent Wayne Havens says the calls are disturbing to hear, but he insists both the LPD sergeant and the district employee simply misspoke. Havens says, "All of our schools are well supervised." He says LISD officers are allowed and do respond to all campuses in the district when they're needed, but they haven't been needed lately out at Estacado because the principal there decided last fall to pay three off-duty Lubbock police officers to patrol the campus all day, every day and now those officers handle most of the on-campus problems. Havens say, "They [LISD officers] don't go to Estacado unless there is an emergency situation or a situaion where there is not another officer there and then they would respond. I just don't want the perception that school has not been taken care of when quite honestly Estacado has had an officer on campus every day. Some of our other campuses on any given day, they might not have an officer there."
Havens says he should have been more proactive about letting people know the off-duty Lubbock police officers were not in charge of safety and security at Estacado. He says if he had just done that, then he thinks this whole misunderstanding could have been avoided.
