Kicking, headbutting, and thrown objects. The loss of an eye from a coat hangar. These are not scenes from a movie or novel, but the stories of educators, administrators, and teachers who shared their experiences in Texas public schools with the House Committee on Public Education.
Texas has a crisis of discipline in its schools. Texas schools have become more unsafe in recent years. There were 450 more assaults on district employees in 2024 than 2023 and 1,500 more fights, part of a broader trend of disorder. Yet at the same time, school suspensions went down by 2,500. In the face of rising violence in schools, school administrators seem unable or unwilling to remove students.
The obvious casualties are the teachers and educators who have been hurt. But there is another, hidden casualty: the psychological well-being and academic futures of the students who must witness this behavior and whose education takes a backseat to the outbursts of a few.
Luckily for the students and educators of Texas, the Texas House is looking to change that. House Bill 6, authored by Representative Jeff Leach from Allen Texas. House Bill 6 makes improvements to several layers of disciplinary interventions, loosening restrictions on in-school suspensions and creating a program where suspended students can continue their education online, ensuring that administrators have a tool for every situation that arises in Texas schools.
Despite this turmoil, some critics seem to only be able to find fault with the bill. Opponents have described a section of the bill as “allow(ing) school districts to file a civil suit to remove students.” This is actually a mischaracterization, as the procedure for an expedited civil suit is the strongest legal protection possible for students. Such a provision ensures that students who are removed are given a timely hearing before a judge.
Additionally, the section only applies to students who are determined by a campus threat assessment team to be “substantially likely to result in physical harm to the student or another person,” and the school must have made reasonable efforts to maintain the student’s current educational setting.
This is a high bar for schools and requires them to exhaust their other options before removing a student viewed as a danger to others. Furthermore, the bill adds the requirement that a campus threat assessment team convened to consider a special education student must include a licensed professional such as a special education teacher or licensed behavior analyst.
The current disciplinary system HB 6 has taken pains to guarantee that safeguards are in place at every step in the disciplinary process, but opponents of HB 6 seem to regard any outcome as preferable to the removal of student, no matter the negative impact on others.
The simple reality is that we can either have a system where we do our best and put forth the due diligence to balance the needs of all students or we have a system where we cannot remove a student until someone is seriously hurt. Texas deserves a discipline system that works.