Houston school where 3 kids were grazed by bullet is highly rated by state

The elementary school northeast of downtown Houston where three kindergarteners were injured when a loaded gun went off in the school cafeteria is top-rated by the state for its academics.

The students, two 6-year-old boys and a 5-year-old girl, at Ross Elementary School in the Houston Independent School District were taken to the hospital for non-life threatening injuries, district spokesman Jason Spencer said in an e-mail Tuesday. The gun had been brought to school by one of the 6-year-old boys, the school system said.

The elementary school, located just beside the Eastex Freeway/U.S. 59, between the Northside Village and Kashmere Gardens neighborhoods of Houston, is rated “exemplary,” the highest academic rating given by the Texas Education Agency.

The school, located in HISD Trustee Carol Galloway’s district, was also rated as one of the better elementary schools in the Houston area by Children At Risk, a local education non-profit.

According to HISD, the three kindergarten students were injured after one of the student brought the weapon to school. The gun “fell to the ground and fired in the cafeteria,” HISD said.

During the 2008-09 school year, there were 59 disciplinary actions at Ross, and 56 of those resulted in an out-of-school suspension, according to HISD data. The data isn’t more specific about what types of offenses the students may have committed or whether any weapons were brought to school.

As HISD trustees consider closing small schools in the district, Ross is listed as an option for students next year if McDade Elementary School closes. McDade is one of 17 schools HISD trustees are considering for closure due to anticipated budget cuts from the state.

In December, Ross was on a list of 66 schools the district was considering for closure due to low student enrollment. But Ross didn’t show up on the two most recent iterations of that list, which named 37 schools in March and 17 in April.

HISD says the district’s police department is currently investigating how the boy gained access to the gun.

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Contact Lynn Walsh, lynn@texaswatchdog.org, 713-228-2850 or on Twitter @lwalsh.

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Photo by flickr user William Hook, used under a Creative Commons license. The bullet in the picture is a 9mm round; authorities have not described the caliber of the gun that went off at Ross Elementary.

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