Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is investigating four Texas school districts, including Austin and Manor, after student walkouts protesting U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement.
Paxton claims that Austin Independent School District officials were aware of and helped facilitate planned walkouts on Jan. 30. Gov. Greg Abbott directed the Texas Education Agency to investigate AISD as well.
But the district has denied helping the students, and has updated its policy to say staff will only monitor student walkouts within 300 feet of a campus.
A Feb. 6 letter from AISD’s General Counsel Kenneth M. Walker II says: “AISD is not helpless. However, short of physically restraining students, we cannot stop them from leaving campus.”
Walker said the idea that AISD helped with the walkouts is misplaced.
“In fact, we share the same sentiments as you that the most ideal place for students to be during instructional hours is in school,” he said.
School principals also urged students in a video to stop the walkouts, saying the number and frequency of the demonstrations is disruptive.
In Manor, Superintendent Robert Sormain said Paxton’s investigation will show that his staff followed district and Texas Education Agency protocol.
Other districts being investigated by Paxton include Dallas Independent School District and San Antonio’s Northeast Independent School District. Paxton does not want Texas schools to become “breeding grounds for the radical left’s open borders agenda.”
“Let this serve as a warning to any public school official or employee who unlawfully facilitates student participation in protests targeting our heroic law enforcement officers: My office will use every legal tool available to hold you accountable,” Paxton said in a statement.
Austin students rallied against ICE at City Hall on Monday, when Bowie High School senior Jacob Saldaña said state investigations should not deter the crowd from continuing to demonstrate.
“Education and advocacy make a difference. What's happening around the country shapes how our friends and classmates live," Saldaña said. "The least we can do is acknowledge it, learn about it and stand by them. That is not politics; that is being human."
