{"id":565554,"date":"2026-02-04T11:36:18","date_gmt":"2026-02-04T11:36:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/565554\/"},"modified":"2026-02-04T11:36:18","modified_gmt":"2026-02-04T11:36:18","slug":"tea-warns-of-state-takeovers-for-encouraging-student-protests","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/565554\/","title":{"rendered":"TEA warns of state takeovers for \u201cencouraging\u201d student protests"},"content":{"rendered":"<\/p>\n<p>Audio recording is automated for accessibility. Humans wrote and edited the story. See our <a href=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/about\/ethics\/#ai-policy\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">AI policy<\/a>, and give us <a href=\"https:\/\/airtable.com\/appFeleeKVUN0Iytx\/pagPG40gbkU0EfjIr\/form\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">feedback<\/a>.<\/p>\n<p>The Texas Education Agency on Tuesday warned school districts that they could be taken over by the state if they help facilitate students walking out of class to attend protests. <\/p>\n<p>The agency <a href=\"https:\/\/tea.texas.gov\/about-tea\/news-and-multimedia\/news-releases\/news-2026\/tea-releases-guidance-for-school-systems-outlining-consequences-regarding-student-walkouts-absences-and-educator-and-district-responsibilities#:~:text=Students%20must%20be%20marked%20as,and%20sanction%20including%20licensure%20revocation.\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">released guidance<\/a> after Gov. <a href=\"https:\/\/directory.texastribune.org\/greg-abbott\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Greg Abbott<\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/gregabbott_tx\/status\/2017402274054648179?s=46\">directed<\/a> Education Commissioner Mike Morath to investigate a social media post showing Austin Independent School District students participating in nationwide <a href=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2026\/01\/30\/texas-students-protest-ice-capitol\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">walkouts<\/a> against the <a href=\"https:\/\/apnews.com\/article\/immigration-deaths-ice-shooting-minneapolis-1ac73bb8e4b42f3e560e00f4a719f3db\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">recent killings<\/a> of several people by federal immigration officers. Austin school district police officers drove near some of the students during the Jan. 30 protest in downtown Austin.<\/p>\n<p>In the guidance released Tuesday evening, the education agency said students, teachers or school districts participating in \u201cinappropriate political activism\u201d could face the following consequences: <\/p>\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Students being marked absent and districts losing state funding.<\/li>\n<li>Educators being investigated and disciplined, including losing their teaching license. <\/li>\n<li>Districts facing state oversight, including the replacement of an elected school board with a board of managers.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>\u201cToday, in classrooms across Texas, tomorrow\u2019s leaders are learning the foundational, critical thinking skills and knowledge necessary for lifelong learning, serving as the bedrock for the future success of our state and nation,\u201d the TEA\u2019s press release said. \u201cIt is in this spirit that school systems have been reminded of their duty and obligation to ensure that their students are both safe and that they attend school, with consequences for students for unexcused absences.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/statutes.capitol.texas.gov\/?tab=1&amp;code=ED&amp;chapter=ED.39A&amp;artSec=\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">State law<\/a> grants Morath authority to conduct special investigations into school districts as he determines necessary. Based on the results of those investigations, the commissioner could lower the district\u2019s accreditation status or accountability rating. He could appoint an individual to monitor the district. He could also replace its elected school board. <\/p>\n<p>Districts that experienced walkouts at their schools on Friday and Monday have maintained they did not endorse or enable the protests and that participating students would receive unexcused absences. Austin ISD Superintendent Matias Segura said in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.austinisd.org\/announcements\/student-safety-and-campus-protest\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">statement<\/a> Monday that district staff could not physically prevent students from leaving campus, and that school resource officers remained with students nearby for their safety.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDuring the school day, our students are our responsibility and we\u2019re committed to the safety of our students in our community, regardless if they are on our campus,\u201d Segura said. \u201cThat is why our administrators and Austin ISD Police remain with our students during protest activities during school hours.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Attorney General <a href=\"https:\/\/directory.texastribune.org\/ken-paxton\/\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Ken Paxton<\/a> on Monday <a href=\"https:\/\/www.texasattorneygeneral.gov\/news\/releases\/attorney-general-ken-paxton-demands-documents-part-investigation-austin-isd-facilitating-student\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">requested<\/a> documents from Austin ISD on student leave policies and internal communications during Friday\u2019s protest and accused district officials of encouraging students to participate.<\/p>\n<p>Hundreds of students also walked out of schools Monday in Hays Consolidated Independent School District, during which two students were arrested by police and several others got into a physical altercation with a passerby. The district denied any connection to facilitating or condoning the walkouts and asserted that \u201cfuture walkouts cannot happen.\u201d <\/p>\n<p>During that Monday walkout, Kyle police arrested two students for allegedly possessing alcohol and resisting arrest, according to the district\u2019s statement. However, the Kyle Police Department said in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/share\/p\/17kbEPGoMj\/?mibextid=wwXIfr\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">statement<\/a> that the arrests were unrelated to the protest. <\/p>\n<p>Videos of the arrest circulated online Monday, which prompted Abbott to assert in a second social media <a href=\"https:\/\/x.com\/GregAbbott_TX\/status\/2018725851135648107\">post<\/a> that he was looking into ways to strip state funding from schools  if they \u201cabandon their duty\u201d to students.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cIt\u2019s about time students like this were arrested. Harming someone is a crime \u2014 even for students,\u201d Abbott said. \u201cDisruptive walkouts allowed by schools lead to just this kind of chaos.\u201d  <\/p>\n<p>Hays CISD also placed a teacher on administrative leave after pictures circulated online of him displaying protest signs with profanity, according to the district\u2019s statement. The teacher was not identified, but Hays CISD officials said \u201che will not be returning to work\u201d in the district.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThe school district belongs to everyone and we do not, as an entity or as employees, use taxpayer time and resources to engage in political activity,\u201d Hays CISD Superintendent Eric Wright said in a <a href=\"https:\/\/www.hayscisd.net\/article\/2679523\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">statement<\/a> on Tuesday. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Audio recording is automated for accessibility. Humans wrote and edited the story. See our AI policy, and give&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":565555,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,3],"tags":[153386,5026,18880,30025,80131,50,8973,67,132,68,156405],"class_list":{"0":"post-565554","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-united-states","8":"category-us","9":"tag-austin-isd","10":"tag-greg-abbott","11":"tag-ken-paxton","12":"tag-kyle","13":"tag-mike-morath","14":"tag-news","15":"tag-texas-education-agency","16":"tag-united-states","17":"tag-unitedstates","18":"tag-us","19":"tag-well-b-homepage"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@us\/116012160419969457","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/565554","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=565554"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/565554\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/565555"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=565554"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=565554"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/us\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=565554"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}