A major investigation by the New York Times and San Antonio Express-News found police at schools across Texas used force thousands of times in recent years.

AUSTIN, Texas — A major investigation by the New York Times and San Antonio Express-News found police at schools across Texas used force thousands of times in recent years. The investigation includes students being pepper-sprayed, tased, taken down and handcuffed. 

Asher Lehrer-Small, one of the reporters behind the investigation, joined KVUE Political Director Ashley Goudeau to discuss more on what they uncovered.



This story continues below.

Lehrer-Small said the investigation was kick-started by the tragic shooting in Uvalde in 2022, where 19 students and two teachers were killed at Robb Elementary School. He said in the following Texas Legislative session in 2023, he recalled lawmakers emphasizing a need to make sure a shooting, like what happened in Uvalde, does not happen again. Safety measures were added to schools and Lehrer-Small said one of the key measures was “adding an officer to every single campus.” 

Only one issue, Lehrer-Small said, there were “no corresponding guard rails, in terms of oversight with those officers.” 

Lehrer-Small said him and his team, consistent of fellow New York Times reporters Clare Amari and Kristian Hernandez, ignited the investigation to uncover more on how the safety measures were working. He said him and his team requested records across Texas to understand how officers were interacting with students.

Most of what an officer does in a school, is to be there for safety whether it’s patrolling the hallways or looking for vapes. Lehrer-Small said 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, in some cases he says “those cases escalated” to officers using pepper-spray, officers taking students down to the ground and the more severe cases where officers used tasers on students. Which in the investigation found, it resulted in injuries to some students. 

Lehrer-Small said two things standout:

1. Texas does train officers for how they should be when they work in schools

This covers de-escalation, working with students with disabilities Lehrer-Said this is “a one-and-done training that lasts 20 hours.” He says the national recommendation is that the minimum be 40 hours.Another finding in the investigation discovered Kentucky, which also requires officers on every campus, requires 120 hours of training.

 2. Oftentimes someone who works at the school whether an assistant principal or another educator is calling an officer in during a situation, Lehrer-Small said the problem being is that “they’re not trained on when they should engage the officer.” 

Lehrer-Small recalled sitting in on a training for one school and the officers he said were told to not engage “unless the incident would rise to the level of a 911 call.” 

Lehrer-Small said him and his team have not received a response from law enforcement regarding the investigation, but actively are continuing to follow up.