Seems Bad! Texas Is Targeting School Districts Where Students Protested Against ICE

There’s no rest for the wicked, and Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton (R) has been a busy little gremlin eradicating civil liberties left and right. He’s going after shield laws, trying to indict people for doing their jobs, running a cringe-inducing Senate campaign, still reportedly going through a divorce (the “biblical” details of which have yet to fully come to light), working overtime to ban abortion everywhere, and now, he’s vowed to investigate three schools where students… conducted peaceful protests against ICE.

On Monday, Paxton announced he plans to investigate the North East Independent School District (ISD), the Dallas ISD, and Manor ISD, after students from all three reportedly walked out of class earlier this month to protest Trump’s cruel anti-immigration campaign, which, especially in Texas, has resulted in reports of horrific human rights abuses, babies and toddlers being detained without cause or explanation, and the arrests of nearly 400,000.

“I will not allow Texas schools to become breeding grounds for the radical Left’s open borders agenda,” the AG said in a press release. “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.” 

Welp. As a personal fan of the First Amendment’s Freedom to Assemble, this sounds bad.

Students in Austin ISD also conducted a similar walkout in January, and Paxton accused all four districts of not doing enough to stop students. According to reports, he now plans to seek records on student leave policies, any excused absences, security procedures, as well as internal communications about the protests, to see whether any faculty members helped organize them.

But Paxton isn’t the only Texas official pissed off at the First Amendment. Governor Greg Abbott (R) has also been threatening to arrest students or pull funding from schools that continue to allow the walkouts. Earlier this month, the state’s education agency also warned districts that helping students walk out are at risk of some state intervention. According to the New York Times, the Lone Star State appears to have taken the strongest measures to try to quell its student protests.

“The Supreme Court has been very clear about free speech of students,” Abbott said at a news conference last week. “And that free speech of students does not include leaving the school.” (The Constitution very much allows students to demonstrate during school hours if they do not disrupt classes.) “You don’t have freedom of speech to say and act any way you want to, anywhere you want to, anytime you want to.” Hm. 

But despite Paxton and Abbott’s efforts, hundreds of students in Texas have joined thousands across the country to stage walkouts to protest against ICE. “We will never tolerate the incitement of violence in our community,” one 17-year-old who participated in a Texas walkout told the Guardian. 

And while the teens of Texas seem to hold far more wisdom than the state’s top leader and highest-ranking legal official combined, it shouldn’t come as too much of a surprise. After all… it seems everyone holds more wisdom than these two idiots.

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