HOUSTON – The Houston Independent School District officially declined Thursday to elaborate on the specifics regarding the death of Marshall Middle School student, Landon Payton.
A district spokesperson said that the matter could be a part of future litigation, so HISD will not further comment about the event.
That standard course of action for entities fearing future lawsuits, also includes silence about a safety issue for a much larger group of students, the working order of the life-saving Automated External Defibrillator (AED) at Marshall Middle School.
KPRC 2 Investigates, over multiple days, has pressed HISD for information regarding the incident and the number of working AEDs at Marshall Middle School and district-wide.
“Every HISD campus has at least one working AED machine; on average, HISD campuses have three working AED machines, exceeding the state’s requirement of one machine per campus. We understand your interest in Marshall, but because of possible litigation, we won’t be able to share any more information with the press than has already been shared,” said HISD spokesperson, Richard Guerra.
Earlier an HISD spokesperson said that the school district had 1,038 machines, with 868 reported working.