DALLAS (KRLD) - Senate Bill 2432 squeaked through the state legislature last session. It states that students who threaten or harass a teacher could be placed in a disciplinary alternative school for an unspecified period of time.
The Texas Classroom Teachers Association argued it was necessary to protect teachers. Lonnie Hollingsworth says fear of violence is one of the factors that drivers teachers away from the profession. "Their environment is not good if students are allowed to engage in serious disciplinary issues and there are no consequences for those students."
But not everyone is happy with the legislation.
Andrew Hairston, the School to Prison Pipeline Project director with Texas Appleseed fears the law will target students of color, LGBTQ students and those with learning disabilities. "More mandatory referrals to disciplinary alternative education programs will disproportionately impact those historically underserved groups."
And he says the law is vague. A student could be placed in a disciplinary school for using a curse word toward a teacher. "In that harassment of a public school official can be construed differently by different school administrators or teachers."
As far as the cursing, Hollingsworth says "probably not. But I tend to think if a student does that, they probably should be considered for a disciplinary placement."
He also says the law is not just for the benefit of the teacher. "It's also the other students in the classroom. When you have a seriously disruptive student, the education of that classroom is being disrupted and the other students can't learn."
The law is set to take effect on September 1.
