Houston ISD to resume all sports starting Monday

HOUSTON - Starting Monday, all Houston ISD sporting and UIL events including district-level varsity competitions and non-district events like tournaments will be reinstated. 

On January 12th, middle school, junior varsity and freshman sports including cross country, football, swim, volleyball and club sports were suspended until further notice. The district cited a spike in COVID-19 cases in the Houston area as the reason why. 

Michelle Williams is a teacher at Kashmere High School and the President of the Houston Education Association. Williams believes the return of sports to the district is happening too soon. 

"We currently have close to 700 active cases that have been reported. Our numbers are up high. Even at my campus in the last week, and we're one of the lower transmission campuses, we've had five cases in the last week. So I just think that it's going to set off just a chain of events where you have more kids that are infected," Williams said. 

"Here's the confusion for me. There are some parents who have their students virtual but send their kids to school for sports. I get it. You want your kids to resume and kids scholarships, especially for high school hinge on this. But at the same time, I hear from teachers, where you know it's bringing more of the coronavirus infections into the schools because at our school that's where our first infections began," Williams continued. 

Fans at sporting events on Houston ISD campuses will still not be allowed and district-wide facilities will have to adhere to limited capacity.