Dallas Independent School District (DISD) Trustee Justin Henry has been named The Dallas Express’ first Bad Apple of the Quarter for abandoning the most children, condemning them to neglect and ignorance at schools with unacceptable student achievement ratings.

The Dallas Express considers any student attending a school with a Student Achievement Score of 69 or below to be abandoned by the school district, the trustee within whose district the student’s school is located, and by the entire board of trustees. 

Henry, who represents Education District 9 — which includes parts of Downtown, Deep Ellum, Uptown, South Dallas, Pleasant Grove, and East Dallas — had 17 schools in his district earn below 70 out of 100 on their campus student achievement scores based on the Texas Education Agency’s accountability reports for the 2021-2022 school year.

All told, those 17 schools were supposed to be educating some 10,003 students. Instead, despite the sincere efforts of DISD’s hardworking teachers, those youths were let down by elected leaders at the helm of a dysfunctional and unaccountable school system.

Henry currently serves as president of DISD’s board of trustees and has been a trustee since 2018. His biography page on the district’s website boasts a number of equity initiatives he has participated in, including serving on the district’s Racial Equity Task Force and sitting on an advisory committee for the Jackie Robinson Foundation, “whose mission is to provide scholarships and leadership development opportunities for students of color with limited financial resources.”

However, despite the trustee’s seeming concern for students of color and their future opportunities, it just so happens that the overwhelming majority of students stuck in his D and F schools are either black or Hispanic.

Demographic Breakdown of Students Justin Henry Abandoned
Student Race Total Abandoned % of Total Abandoned
Hispanic 5,897 59.0%
Black 3,727 37.3%
All Other Races 379 3.7%
Total 10,003 100.0%

These students are trapped at the following schools:

  • Lincoln Humanities/Communications Magnet High School (69 – D)
  • Thelma Elizabeth Page Richardson Elementary School (69 – D)
  • W.A. Blair Elementary School (69 – D)
  • Citylab High School (66 – D)
  • James Madison High School (66 – D)
  • Paul L. Dunbar Learning Center (65 – D)
  • Ann Richards STEAM Academy (64 – D)
  • Ignite Middle School (62 – D)
  • Piedmont Global Academy (62 – D)
  • San Jacinto Elementary School (62 – D)
  • Billy Earl Dade Middle School (60 – D)
  • C.A. Tatum Jr. Elementary School (59 – F)
  • Harold Wendell Lang Sr. Middle School (59 – F)
  • Frank Guzick Elementary School (58 – F)
  • Frederick Douglass Elementary School (57 – F)
  • E.B. Comstock Middle School (55 – F)
  • H.S. Thompson Learning Center (47 – F)


The Dallas Express reached out to Trustee Henry for comment, informing him of how many students he abandoned last school year, but received no response by press time.

Note: This article was updated on April 20, 2023, at 6:09 a.m. to accurately reflect the number of abandoned students in Henry’s district.