TISD Open Records Request

We abeen telling you about the controversy surrounding the choice of the Texas School Safety Center, essentially a state agency, to handle the security assessment in the wake of the killing at John Tyler High School.

The controversy comes from a private, national security firm that has worked for TISD before, as recently as 2005.

The firm, is National School Safety and Security Services of Cleveland. Their president Kenneth Trump told KETK that he is suspicious of the process by which they were bypassed for the state group, whose services are essentially free of charge.

His contention is that in addition to going cheap, as he describes it, the district may want a conclusion that is favorable to them, particularly in light of the coming bond issue .

He has sent TISD an open records request for all communications involved in the matter, but The district has offered the state group a chance to declare information about them to be private and proprietary…in essence, trade secrets.

But as a government entity, do they have trade secrets?

The School Safety Center has 10 days to answer and file with the Attorney General for an exception…

We have still not heard from the district on the matter.

We placed a call to two TISD board members, Theralee Washington and Orenthia Mason. We did not get a response.

The Freedom of Information Foundation in Austin told KETK that they saw nothing in this request that came close to a legal exemption from open records. since the Safety Center is a state entity.

They told us, that would be like the Agriculture Department claiming trade secrets.

What the records request will show, and whether Ken Trumps charges are unfounded, is still to be determined.