Update 11-13-23 This story has been updated with a response from HISD as well as a copy of the presentation they say was shared with the students.

Student leaders at five different schools in Houston ISD were pulled from their classes at mid-day Monday to attend a meeting with a few principals and the executive director for the Central District Dr. Hilda Arnold, where the message was that they should tell their principals if they hear of any planned student actions like a protest or walkout.

“They didn’t say it outright,” one student said, picking words carefully, but the impression was clear the student said, that the administration would appreciate a heads-up before any disruption took place. As the people who provide lines of communication between the student body and administrators this would be helpful in dealing with any “rumors or hearsay” the student said they were told.

Another student we talked with was more direct. “They’re asking us to be snitches.”

So either these students left the meeting with a complete misunderstanding of the point these HISD administrators were trying to convey or they understood perfectly well that they were being asked to tell on their teachers and other students to the administration.

We contacted HISD through its press office Wednesday afternoon by email without receiving any reply. We will be glad to update this story once we hear from HISD. Updated statement:

"Students who participated in the meeting are part of the Austin Feeder Pattern Student Council Advisory Team. As members of that team, they represent the student body and actively seek input from their peers. Students are the heart of HISD, and what they think matters. Meeting with student groups is one of the many ways that school and district leaders work to understand students’ perspectives and promote a constructive dialogue."

The students who talked with the Houston Press said they were part of a group of ten students brought to Stephen F. Austin High supposedly for a question-and-answer session while pizza and Coke were served. Instead, one student said, they listened to a lecture on why the new educational approach that Superintendent Mike Miles is installing is better for everyone. And were only given ten minutes at the end to ask any questions.

“They sat us down. We weren’t really allowed to speak," one said.

Administrators talked to the students about “the core principals of the new HISD.” When students were given the chance  to ask questions, the subject of field trips came up.

Under the new system they were told that field trips won't happen unless it could be proved they were educational, the student said. And, they were told, such excursions would only be allowed outside of regular school hours.

Rolling the dice, the group asked the principals and Arnold “If we could be part of the hiring process [for new administrators and teachers].” Unsurprisingly the answer was no. But students said they are concerned with the sudden removal of district principals with little to no explanation since the Miles administration began.

The students selected for the meeting came from Middle College at Felix Fraga, East Early High School, Eastwood Academy, High School for Law and Justice and Austin High, they said. Arnold, who reports to Dr. Luz Martinez (who is over the Central District and seems to be more in the news about dispatching principals and teachers than the other district superintendents), reportedly spent most of the meeting time taking notes.

Asked how the students felt about what happened, one student said it wasn’t so much that the student was intimidated; it was more that the student felt “patronized” and regarded like a young child given pizza and Coke and expected to go along with whatever was said to them.

However, another student we talked with definitely felt intimidated and worried that by not complying, that the student’s college chances may be hurt. “They’re the higher ups. I was scared they could ruin my future."

This student said the session “felt like brain washing” and interpreted the talk about being a bridge between their fellow students and the administration as the administration wanting them to “spy on” their peers and teachers. That student called the pizza “a bribe.”

That student said teachers at the school that student attends made the selections for the special meeting. During the meeting “We weren’t allowed to take any pictures of the slides [they were shown,]” the student said.

As the student understands it, if they uncover something they are to tell the principal. “If the principal’s not doing anything we have to contact the administration, the people who were in the meeting, like Ms. Arnold.”

The student confided: “I don’t think nothing big [is planned at their school]. But if it does, I don’t know what I’m going to do.”

The presentation HISD made to students: