As Houston Schools Welcome Katrina Evacuees, Christian Groups Aid Gulf Relief Efforts
by Jim Brown, Chad Groening, and Jenni Parker
September 7, 2005
(AgapePress) - A Houston (Texas) schools spokesman says thousands of Hurricane Katrina evacuees could soon be entering the city's schools. Hundreds of children displaced by the storm have already enrolled in the Houston Independent School District and other area schools, and more are expected to be registered in the days to come. HISD is already the largest public school system in Texas and the seventh-largest in America; and now it will be expanding its capacity to join other Houston districts in an effort to make room for thousands of children evacuated from the devastated Louisiana, Mississippi and Alabama Gulf Coast regions. Toward that end, the district is in the process of hiring new teachers and ordering more textbooks to accommodate the refugees.
Spokesman Terry Abbott says Houston's school system has enough room to meet the need. "We have some schools that already were at capacity with just our basic student population," he notes, "and obviously we will not be sending the evacuees to those schools. But we also have plenty of schools that have space. Our school district alone has 305 schools."
With one of the largest school systems in the country, Houston is well situated to handle its share of the evacuees. "We've got space for several thousand children," Abbot says, "and that's what we're working on planning for now."
The Houston schools representative points out that the Texas city has dealt with its share of tragedies and natural disasters in the past, including a severe tropical storm a few years ago. In the aftermath of Katrina, he says the Houston schools are ready and more than willing to reach out to those in need.
One area of concern, however, is the law's requirement that students must have been immunized for certain communicable diseases before they are normally allowed to enroll school. "The kids obviously will have no shot records coming from the storm area," Abbott explains, "so under federal policies and state policies, we are allowed to enroll those children without inoculation records for 30 days."
Even where students records are permanently irretrievable, Texas Commissioner of State Health Services Eduardo Sanchez, M.D., suggests that district parents need not concern themselves about evacuee children's immunization status. Recently he was quoted in an HISD Connect article as saying that students displaced by Hurricane Katrina enrolling in Texas schools pose no increased health risk to Texas students.
Sanchez pointed out that immunization requirements for school attendance in Mississippi, Alabama, and Louisiana are similar to those in Texas. "Just because they didn't escape with their shot records, doesn't mean they haven't had their shots. If they were in school in those states, chances are they are immunized," he noted.
Also, the health official said even if some children were not immunized, the inoculations resident students have received should protect them against measles, mumps, chicken pox, and other common illnesses. Still, he stresses the importance of routine in-school disease prevention measures such as frequent and thorough hand-washing with soap and warm water, especially before eating and after visiting the restroom.
Volunteer Applauds Faith-Based Aid Delivery, Calls for More
But while some Katrina survivors are resettling and starting to resume their lives elsewhere, many others remain in the storm affected areas, desperate for help. North Mississippian Michael Pittman, a disaster relief volunteer who recently returned from the hard-hit area to the south, says he was deeply impressed with the efficiency of faith-based volunteer groups on the scene that are delivering greatly needed assistance.
Pittman lives in Tupelo, far from the devastated Gulf Coast, but headed south last weekend to volunteer with the Southern Baptist Disaster Relief agency. "They've got a system that's working," he says. While the "Southern Baptists were supposed to be a support for the Red Cross," he adds, "Red Cross is just right there on the same compound with them, but they're ineffective. They don't have a plan; it's chaos."
On the other hand, the volunteer relief worker asserts, "These faith-based groups are meeting the needs of the people," desperate storm victims who are crying out for more than just food and shelter, he points out.
"There's thousands and thousands that are coming through," Pittman says, "and they're begging and begging for preachers and lay people to come down there and to minister to them. These people have no hope. They need hope, and the only hope they can get is through Jesus Christ. They need people to go down there and share Jesus Christ with them."
The Tupelo resident says he plans to return to the coast this coming weekend. He urges others who are able to do the same, despite the fact that some officials involved in the relief efforts are telling well-meaning individuals not to travel to the disaster site, lest they be in the way.
However, Pittman says more volunteers need to come down and help. "But don't go down there without being hooked up with an organization," he advises. "Don't just go down there on your own and not know where to go. You need to get hooked up with a faith-based organization that's being effective. Get in there and go with them and do something."
As a volunteer who has seen first-hand what a difference faith-based aid is making in the wake of Katrina, Pittman is urging the Christians to "go into action" and be central in relief and recovery efforts. Believers are going into action already, which has meant "thousands and thousands of lives saved because of the body of Christ," he says, "but we need to continue."
