Proponents of the measures said they would improve classroom safety and increase support for educators, while critics said the bills would undermine civil rights protections and push students toward the “school-to-prison pipeline.”
The overview
The committee unanimously advanced Senate Bill 27 by Sen. Brandon Creighton, R-Conroe, to the full Senate on March 25. Creighton’s proposal would give teachers more discretion to remove from the classroom a student who interferes with the teacher’s ability to teach, or who bullies or abuses someone.
SB 27 also seeks to improve teachers’ working conditions by directing school districts to inform educators which days they are required to work throughout the school year and preventing teachers from being penalized for breaking their contracts due to an illness or the relocation of a spouse or live-in partner.
“This bill reflects a commitment to real and meaningful change on how we support, respect and continue to work to retain our Texas teachers,” Creighton said during the March 25 hearing. “It sends a clear message to our educators: we hear you, and the Texas Legislature... will have your back.”
The committee also discussed Senate Bill 1871. Bill author Sen. Charles Perry, R-Lubbock, said his proposal would address a rise in violence in Texas public schools. Under SB 1871, students would be expelled and sent to an off-campus program if they assault a teacher or threaten to bring a gun to school.
Students would be automatically sent to a state-run Juvenile Justice Alternative Education Program for these offenses. The programs provide academic and behavioral support for students who are expelled from public schools, according to the Texas Juvenile Justice Department.
“I can't find anybody that [would say] if a kid hits a teacher, they shouldn't be removed from the class,” Perry said during the hearing. “When other kids see this behavior and the kid gets away with it, they just keep doing it.”
Senate Bill 1924, also by Creighton, would allow police to issue Class C misdemeanors to students whose actions are “disruptive or dangerous,” such as fighting or bringing drugs and alcohol to school. Police would also be required to issue criminal charges if a student physically harms a teacher.
SBs 1871 and 1924 were left pending March 25, although the committee could vote on the proposals during a future hearing.
The debate
Perry said cracking down on violent behavior in public schools is “the most important thing we can do as a legislature.”
“Teachers are in so many hats and roles,” he said March 25. “They're expected to be a teacher, they're expected to be a surrogate parent, they're expected to be a mental health expert, and then... they're expected to know how to take down a disruptive kid in their classroom.”
Kaylan Dixon Smith, an attorney for the Texas Classroom Teachers Association, told the committee that classroom discipline is a top concern for teachers.
“Student discipline problems are linked to teacher attrition,” Dixon Smith said. “To be frank, if you want to keep teachers teaching, you must make the classroom safer. We must give teachers more autonomy and authority to maintain classroom environments that are safe and conducive for learning.”
She said educators work to minimize classroom disruptions and communicate with parents, but “sometimes, none of those strategies work.”
Civil rights advocates testified that expelling more students and allowing police to issue citations would harm vulnerable students.
“We recognize that disruptive learning environments hinder quality education for all students,” said Maia Volk, a policy fellow for Disability Rights Texas. “However, the legislation as written overreaches and would catch students whose behaviors are not at the level [these bills] seek to address, and those would likely disproportionately be students with disabilities.”
State law previously allowed law enforcement to cite students for school-related offenses, but lawmakers passed legislation prohibiting that in 2013.
Paige Duggins-Clay, an attorney for the Intercultural Development Research Association, said SB 1924 would send more students down the “school-to-prison pipeline.” IDRA is an education policy nonprofit.
“We're deeply concerned about reverting to criminalization and pushing kids into court systems which are not equipped to support and handle the challenges that our young people and our families are facing,” Duggins-Clay said March 25.
Sen. Royce West, D-Dallas, said he did not want to see students arrested at school.
“Surely, as the chair of [the education committee], that's not something that you desire,” West said. “Let's make certain we don't make the mistakes of the past.”
Creighton, who leads the committee, said he wanted to reverse “some mistakes in the legislature... that have absolutely created a situation where teachers are being hurt, harmed, threatened, scared and work in fear.”
More details
Sen. José Menéndez, D-San Antonio, said lawmakers need to find ways to balance the needs of students and teachers.
“While we want a safe classroom, we also want to make sure that we don’t create a pipeline from school to jail,” he said. "We want to make sure that we get everyone educated.”
Grandview ISD Superintendent Kirby Basham said allowing districts to cite students could help deter disruptive behavior.
“We’ve basically gone from zero tolerance to zero consequences,” Basham told the committee. “We need to have a reasonable balance.”
Basham added that he would not allow police to “walk into English class and arrest somebody.” He said districts should work with parents to determine how to handle students who assault or threaten teachers.
Bill Avera, president of the Texas School District Police Chiefs' Association, said he expected schools would create “guardrails” to ensure all students have an opportunity to grow and succeed.
“[SB 1924] is a tool in our tool chest that we can use in public schools to ensure that the kids are behaving,” Avera said March 25. “In my 20 years of school-based law enforcement, I've never arrested a student, unless it was a violent felony crime, in front of any other students, and that would only be as a safety precaution.”
Also of note
One week earlier, the Texas House Public Education Committee discussed House Bill 6, which would overhaul the state’s school discipline policies and make it easier for schools to suspend younger students.
HB 6 would reverse a 2017 state law that generally prohibits schools from suspending students in pre-K through second grade, allowing schools to remove from the classroom any student who repeatedly disrupts a classroom or threatens the safety of others.
Bill author Rep. Jeff Leach, R-Plano, said students who “assault a fellow student or a teacher” should not be allowed to stay in the classroom. Some Texans urged the legislature to invest in crisis prevention training before removing young students and children with disabilities from class.
HB 6 was left pending in the committee March 18.
