| UNFAIR PARK | Echoes of Gunfire Dallas Councilman Adam McGough pitches more security after Uvalde shooting. BY JACOB VAUGHN I n a memo last week, Adam McGough, Dallas City Council member and chair of its public safety committee, asked for beefed-up security measures at local schools following the Uvalde mass shooting. The committee discussed some of those recommendations with the Dallas Po- lice Department at its meeting Monday. “Regardless of federal gun laws and with- out adequate mental health resources, cities and school districts must step up to control what we can to protect the most vulnerable parts of our community, our kids,” McGough said in the memo. “As with all government action, we must balance our freedoms with necessary protective measures.” Salvador Ramos, 18, killed 19 children “MY VIEW IS THE SCHOOLS ARE AS SAFE AS THEY CAN BE, UNLESS THE KILLER HAS AR- TYPE WEAPONS.” - CASEY BOLAND, RICHARDSON ISD and two teachers last month when he opened fire at Robb Elementary in Uvlade. Just days before the shooting, Ramos legally bought the rifle used to carry out the attack. McGough said the Dallas Independent School Dis- trict has its own police department, but that every district has different ways of ad- dressing safety. Mc- Gough wants some safety measures to be uniform across all schools in the city, which in- cludes more than just DISD. Campuses from Richardson, Carrollton-Farmers Branch and Duncanville school districts also sit in the city. One thing McGough thinks every school needs is its own resource officer. These offi- cers, part of the school resource officer pro- gram, are responsible for school security, scenario prevention and response, safety training, social media monitoring and build- ing relationships with their communities. Some schools in McGough’s part of town belong to Richardson Independent School District, which doesn’t have its own police department. According to his memo, over 60% of Richardson ISD students live in Dal- las. So, McGough thinks they should con- sider what it would take to form a police department for the district. He also wants a safety audit of every 4 school in the city, a volunteer program for parents and for schools to be shut down when they’re being used as voting locations in local elections. Richardson ISD already does some of the things McGough has rec- ommended, like closing down schools when they’re used as voting locations and trying to spot early warning signs of potential threats, according to The Dallas Morning News. side the African regions where monkeypox is more commonly found. As of last Wednesday afternoon, around 40 cases had been detected in the U.S. so far this year, according to the Centers for Dis- ease Control and Prevention. The CDC has also raised its travel alert to a Level 2 and urges people to “practice enhanced precau- tions,” such as avoiding contact with wildlife and looking out for symptoms. Monkeypox isn’t a new virus, said Dr. Rodney E. Rohde, a professor and chair of the clinical laboratory science program at Texas State University. It’s likely been around for millennia, seen in rodent-like an- imals in places like Africa. Around two decades ago, there was an in- Michael M. Santiago/Getty Images A man and a child pay their respects at a memorial to the victims of the Robb Elementary School mass shooting in Uvalde. Casey Boland, a Richardson ISD teacher, told the Observer McGough has done a lot to help beef up security at Richardson ISD schools. “He is one of the reasons we have all of the security in place – SROs, locked doors, single entry, cameras, etc.,” Boland said. There’s not a lot the City Council could do to restrict gun sales locally, but Boland said this is the more prevalent issue around school safety. “My view is the schools are as safe as they can be, unless the killer has AR-type weap- ons,” Boland said. “So, shoring up what is al- ready in place, and checking to make sure those protocols are intact are fine ideas. But, they won’t solve the problem, which is too easy, too young access to those types of weapons.” This month, the U.S. House of Represen- tatives passed the Protecting Our Kids Act, according to CNBC, which would raise the legal minimum age for purchasing a gun from 18 to 21 years old. The bill would also ban the sale of large capacity magazines and implement new at-home gun storage rules. The bill was all but guaranteed to fail in the Senate, where Republicans are pushing a separate meaure that would not increase age limits of ban magazines.. ▼ HEALTH DON’T FREAK OUT T DALLAS HEALTH OFFICIALS REPORTED THE FIRST CASE OF MONKEYPOX THIS YEAR IN THE LONE STAR STATE. BY SIMONE CARTER hanks to the coronavirus pandemic, many are still reeling from a tough couple of years of quarantine and testing and sickness. So, when news broke last Tuesday that health officials had found 2022’s first Texas case of monkeypox in a Dallas County resident, some understand- ably got a little anxious. While doctors want you to remain aware, they also say there’s no reason to panic. Dallas County Health and Human Ser- vices Director Dr. Philip Huang said the per- son who contracted monkeypox had recently flown in from Mexico, and that they’re isolating at home. “Right now, there’s no known risk to the general public,” Huang said, adding that monkeypox is “very rare.” Last July, local health officials reported the first instance of a Dallas County resident coming down with the illness. In that case, the person was hospitalized after flying from Nigeria, and Huang said it was ulti- mately contained and deemed a “public health success.” Many of the monkeypox cases are associ- ated with men who have sex with men, Huang said, but it’s not just confined to that group. The virus isn’t sexually transmitted but spreads via close contact, such as through lesions, sores, body fluids and respi- ratory secretions via prolonged face-to-face interactions. During June, there are lots of activities in Dallas to celebrate Pride Month, Huang said. He asks that everyone be conscious of others who have lesions that could poten- tially be sources of spread. Huang also mentioned that global health officials recently traced the monkeypox out- break to raves in Europe. Globally, the World Health Organization is counting some 1,000 cases that have cropped up in countries out- cursion of monkeypox in a shipment of re- search animals out of Ghana, said Rohde, who’s also an associate adjunct professor at Austin Community College. For a time, the concern was that it would spread to the prai- rie dog population in West Texas and other parts of the state and become endemic here. Rohde also notes that “monkeypox” is a misnomer. “It got that name way back when one of the first big incidents happened, because a shipment of monkeys being transported for research ended up having monkeypox, and somebody gave it the name and it stuck,” he said. “Probably a better name would be ‘ro- dentpox’ because it’s really more endemic in rodents than monkeys.” Monkeypox can cause flu-like symptoms such as fever, fatigue, muscle aches and nau- sea, Rohde said. Similar to smallpox, those infected with the virus may develop lesions like blisters, which end up bursting before scabbing over, drying up and falling off. One difference between the two “pox,” though, is that lymph nodes may swell with the monkey variety, he said. Monkeypox has a couple of forms: the West African clade and Congo Basin clade. The U.S. is witness- ing the former, which is less deadly with a mortality rate of 1% or less. Rohde also explained that monkeypox’s transmissibility is relatively low. “It’s going to be a virus that’s not going to go raging through the population,” he said. “It’s hard to transmit; it doesn’t kill as many people. It’s really actually pretty wimpy with respect to getting around.” The illness usually goes away on its own, but those who test positive for monkeypox can also get treated via antiviral medications such as tecovirimat, Rohde said. Looking ahead, Rohde and other health officials think that the fall and winter months could bring a more active flu season. Antibiotic-resistant infections, which he’s called a “slow-burning pandemic,” kill up to 300 or 400 people each day. Rohde also said there’s a question as to whether African swine fever, which is mainly found >> p6 1 dallasobserver.com | CONTENTS | UNFAIR PARK | SCHUTZE | FEATURE | NIGHT+DAY | CULTURE | MOVIES | DISH | MUSIC | CLASSIFIED | DALLAS OBSERVER MONTH XX–MONTH XX, 2014 JUNE 16-22, 2022 DALLAS OBSERVER CLASSIFIED | MUSIC | DISH | CULTURE | UNFAIR PARK | CONTENTS dallasobserver.com
