Houston Community College does not have a district-wide policy for hoverboards. Currently, policies vary from campus-to-campus.

Southeast Campus Manager Dolores Rios said, “There is no policy on hoverboards. Our policy is that students are not allowed to skateboard on our granite benches.”

Southwest Campus Manager Alex Prince stated “I cannot answer for HCC, but I can answer for Southwest college. We don’t allow any hoverboards in the facility at all. We really discourage it on campus because as you notice on the news, they are becoming a fire hazard.”

Prince added that, “It should be in the student handbook.” However, even as a campus manager, he said that, “I have not been able to locate the handbook.”

If you use the search bar and weed through two misdirecting links and two dead links, you can find a copy of the Student Handbook on HCC’s website here. It contains no mention of Hoverboards. Searching the word ‘Hoverboard’ on HCCS.edu gives no results.

Central campus secretary, Annette Olvera, researched and found that there is no permanent policy in place at the moment. For the meantime, hoverboards are not allowed inside buildings, but they are allowed on the campus grounds.

Northwest, Northeast and Coleman campus managers could not be reached for comment.
HCC Police Lieutenant John Boxie stated that, “Since there is no policy yet, we cannot do anything,” he added that, “according to the City of Houston code of ordinances, skateboarding is not allowed on the sidewalks. They still don’t have one for hoverboards.”

So far, there have been 12 Hoverboard incidents in the United States and at least 40 incidents in 19 other countries.

Many universities such as Purdue University, Yale University, Ohio State and others have either banned hoverboards or now fine for their use. They are banning them because of fire hazards and/or it’s a type of motor transportation.

Disney theme parks, malls, some cities and even some states are banning hoverboards because some have already caught on fire in public places.

Also, different cities, states, and countries are taking control and making different policies about riding hoverboards or making them illegal.

Hoverboards could catch on fire anywhere—while it’s charging, while in use, or simply sitting there awaiting use. There isn’t a particular brand that does not catch on fire.

Engineers are investigating why they are exploding and catching on fire. They believe that hoverboards are catching on fire because they are having problems with the lithium-ion batteries.

The batteries are more powerful than any other electronic device, and when a person over charges them, it can explode. It is recommended that Hoverboards not be charged indoors for safety reasons.

Hoverboards are the most popular thing to buy this new year. It’s the most recent thing that came out and lots of people like to have the newest thing to be what they call “cool.”

Parents are giving their kids hoverboards because they want to give their child what they wish for, to keep them happy, or because they believe their kids deserve it.

So far, nobody has been injured or died from the fires because somehow it happens when they aren’t on it, or somehow they fall off. People need to be careful with hoverboards because anything could happen.