AUSTIN, TEXAS — Police officers at Texas schools used force thousands of times in recent years. Documented incidents of force included officers pepper-spraying, tasing, physically taking down, and handcuffing students.
Many of these incidents originated from minor infractions. Texas state law prohibits school police officers from intervening in routine student disciplinary matters. Some documented incidents of police force resulted in physical injuries to students.
School administrators and educators frequently request police intervention during student incidents. School staff members do not receive formal training on the appropriate circumstances for involving law enforcement officers. Reporter Asher Lehrer-Small said, "They're not trained on when they should engage the officer."
"There is a law that says they're not supposed to get involved in routine student discipline, but what we found when we looked into the cases is that a lot of the cases started over smaller instances, things like a student was out of dress code or a student was talking back to a teacher." Lehrer-Small said.
Texas requires 20 hours of training for law enforcement officers working in school environments. This mandatory training includes modules on de-escalation techniques and working with students with disabilities. National safety guidelines recommend a minimum of 40 hours of training for school resource officers.
The 2022 shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde resulted in the deaths of 19 students and two teachers. The Texas Legislature passed school safety measures during its 2023 session, with one requiring assigning a law enforcement officer to every school campus. Kentucky mandates officers on every school campus and requires 120 hours of training for those positions. Reporters Asher Lehrer-Small, Clare Amari, and Kristian Hernandez conducted the investigation.