Conservative Texas parents and teachers are backing a proposed bill that will allow police to ticket violent or disruptive students in hopes of identifying troubled youth.
The proposed legislation comes just weeks after a teen killed 19 students and two teachers at a school shooting in Uvalde, Texas.
Texas State Rep. Steve Toth (R-Woodlands) told The Epoch Times that the bill for the 2023 legislative session would help identify students who fly under the legal radar because of laws based on restorative justice. Restorative justice focuses on mediation and agreement rather than punishment.
School shooters often have a history of violent or threatening behavior that doesn’t get reported to police, Toth said. The “woke left” doesn’t want the police involved in school discipline, he said.
“This kid in Uvalde is an example. While he was at school, he walked around with a ziplock bag with two cat heads in it—if that doesn’t make your skin crawl.”
Toth said the gruesome act, which he verified with state law enforcement, would be felony animal abuse under Texas law. But authorities never knew about it because of Senate Bill 393, which was passed as part of the restorative justice movement.
Lawmakers passed the bill in 2013 to reduce police involvement, which critics said contributed to the school-to-prison pipeline. The law banned school police officers from issuing citations for misbehavior at school, excluding traffic violations.
Many applauded the bill because students who did not pay their fines could be arrested when they turned 17. The offenses could appear on their criminal records if they didn’t pay their fines.
Changes Proposed
Toth hopes to repeal Senate Bill 393 and replace it with The Protect Teachers Secure Classrooms Act, which he will sponsor. His bill would allow a committee with a teacher, the district attorney, and local law enforcement to review student behavior. The group would decide if the student would receive a citation as a class C misdemeanor.“It would allow law enforcement to know who these people are,” he said.
Several teachers and parents attending a press conference, held by Toth last week during the Texas GOP convention, spoke publicly about their experiences with violent or troubled students.
Morgan McComb, whose children attended a Denton County school north of Dallas, said she decided to pull her children out of school after a student made threats.
McComb said a would-be school shooter sent texts to 20 students warning them not to come to school the next day because he was “going to do something really bad.”
According to McComb, one of the students’ parents contacted the police, who went to his house to find a gun, backpack, and a list.
McComb said the foiled shooter incident happened in January, but the student was back in class by March. McComb described how her frightened teenage daughter was caught up in the nightmare because the student ended up sitting next to her in class.
McComb said that the student started texting her daughter, following her on social media, and even “dropped a pin” showing where she lived.
“What I’m telling you is there are school shooters sitting next to your kids,” she said.
Melissa Martin, a board member of Innovative Teachers of Texas—a non-union teacher’s organization, said she’s been a teacher for 22 years and initially bought into the restorative justice movement because teachers naturally want students to stay in the classroom.
But the outcome hasn’t been good for teachers or students.
“Since then, I see this experiment has totally failed. It’s failed our communities; it’s failed our schools,” Martin said.
