Lawmakers Tackle Plague of Improper Student-Teacher Relationships: Your Texas Roundup

QUOTE OF THE DAY

“For the right amount of money, anything’s for sale.”

— Jesse Garcia to the Dallas Morning News. Garcia was hunting on Tuesday when he bagged a pregnant wild hog. As he unsuccessfully tried to save the piglets, he discovered that one of them had one head, two torsos, and eight legs. Garcia has received several offers to buy the specimen, which is currently sitting in his freezer. So if you’re in the market for an eight-legged piglet fetus, we know a guy.

BIG NEWS

Classroom Accountability
On Wednesday, Texas lawmakers took steps to tackle a “statewide plague” of inappropriate student-teacher relationships. Under a bill unanimously approved by the Senate, school officials who fail to report improper teacher relationships with students would face criminal charges, according to the Dallas Morning News. As the Texas Tribune reports, Senator Paul Bettencourt filed the bill, which is co-authored by thirty of his colleagues, in response to a rising number of school scandals in Texas involving teachers having sex with or romancing their students. Bettencourt said that many of the teachers involved in such conduct are able to be rehired in other districts, a phenomenon known as “pass the trash,” because districts fail to report them to the Texas Education Agency. The bill seeks to end that practice by slapping a Class A misdemeanor on administrators who fail to report such relationships, and if it is an intentional cover-up, administrators could be charged with a state jail felony. The bill also says that teachers charged with this kind of misconduct would be stripped of their teaching license even if the relationship was with a student outside of their district. The bill will now head to the House, where similar legislation has been filed, for consideration. In the last fiscal year, the TEA opened 222 investigations into inappropriate student-teacher relationships. As the Dallas Morning News notes, by the end of January, the TEA had opened 97 new cases investigating student-teacher relationships since September 1—that’s a 43 percent increase in the number of cases opened in the same period last year.

MEANWHILE, IN TEXAS

Where Art Thou, Romo?
Tony Romo will be taking his fragile bones elsewhere. ESPN reported on Wednesday that the Dallas Cowboys were planning to release the face of the franchise on Thursday, allowing Romo to pursue other opportunities as a free agent. No one expected the talented but often injured Romo to remain on the Cowboys’ bench next season, but many speculated that he would be swept away in a trade agreement rather than cut loose to shop around for a new team. If you’re asking yourself what the Cowboys will look like without Romo, you can just look back to last season for guidance. The move signals that the Cowboys are fully invested in Dak Prescott as a starting quarterback, and the team is apparently in talks with veteran quarterback and Texas native Josh McCown as a back-up replacement. It’s unclear where Romo will roam after he leaves Dallas, but we have a few thoughts on where he could possibly end up.

Biker Battle
A woman who was arrested in the May 2015 shootout at a Waco Twin Peaks filed a federal lawsuit seeking $350 million in damages on Wednesday, according to the Waco Tribune-Herald. Morgan English, a 32-year-old bank teller who lives in Brenham, claims that she was wrongfully jailed for sixteen days and held on a $1 million bond following the melee. English says she and her husband drove a car to the restaurant with two friends to attend a meeting of Coalition of Clubs and Independents, a meet-up that the Tribune-Herald describes as “a group of motorcyclists who get together to discuss legislative issues and other topics of interest.” But the biking enthusiasts didn’t get a chance to talk politics. English and her husband, who said that they were unaware of the growing tension between the Bandidos and the Cossacks, were arrested as part of the massive roundup, but they are not among the 155 people who have been indicted on charges of engaging in criminal activity.

Fetal Position
Well, that took a turn. A House committee meeting called to debate a contentious bill that would require fetal remains to be buried or cremated quickly devolved into a heated exchange about if abortion should be completely outlawed, according to the Texas Tribune. “House Bill 35 allows for babies to be continued to be killed but then requires their burial afterward,” said Jim Baxa, who traveled from Lubbock to Austin for the Wednesday hearing. “While I believe burials for miscarried babies is a wonderful thing, burying babies does not solve the problem of murder in our land.” Several speakers approved of another House bill that was filed to abolish abortion. Representative Byron Cook, who introduced the fetal remains bill, asked anti-abortion advocates to stay on topic. “You’re hurting your cause by not speaking on this bill,” Cook told the advocates. “You will have plenty of time to speak on other bills, but this is not the time to get off message.” The committee did not vote on the bill.