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Parents, advocacy groups press Seguin ISD board for greater transparency and stronger student-safety policies
Summary
Multiple community members and local advocacy groups urged the Seguin ISD Board of Trustees to add agenda items on transparency, discipline policy, and assemblies after a string of safety concerns and calls for public reporting.
Several parents and local advocacy groups urged the Seguin Independent School District Board of Trustees on Tuesday to adopt clearer reporting and policy changes related to student safety, discipline and campus events.
During the public comment period, Megan Strickland of Safe and Seguin told trustees, "I urge the board to provide the community with clear, easily accessible data on critical issues like bullying, assaults, fights, as well as lockdowns." She asked the board to add an agenda item for a public dashboard or chart that would regularly report aggregated counts and trends without releasing private details.
Other speakers amplified complaints about how the district handles serious incidents. Jennifer Miller described two assault investigations involving her daughter that she said were categorized incorrectly and not addressed adequately by school investigators. "Assault is not bullying," Miller said, urging the board to separate bullying and assault in policy and to convene a community roundtable before the end of next month.
Speakers also requested that assemblies become more inclusive, arguing current opt-in practices exclude students; Violet Pullen and Levi Robertson urged the board to require assemblies districtwide with opt-outs only for specific circumstances. Multiple speakers, including Carla Allen and Diana Farris, asked the board to create clearer, publicly available grievance and reporting procedures and to hold town-hall–style public sessions so parents and community members who cannot attend weekday meetings can be heard.
The comments repeatedly called for more transparent, regular updates from the district’s student services office and for policies that make resources and discipline outcomes easier for the public to understand. Safe and Seguin offered to collaborate with the district on the deliverables for a transparency agenda item and said volunteers are available to help build any dashboard the board requests.
Board members did not take formal action on these requests during the meeting; several trustees acknowledged the comments and said they would consider next steps.
Community members said their requests are practical and intended to rebuild trust: better public data about safety incidents, clearer distinctions between types of misconduct in board policy, and more opportunities for community input outside standard business hours.
The board’s rules for audience participation were read earlier at the meeting; those rules limit comments to five minutes and prohibit board deliberation on items not on the posted agenda.
