{"id":251796,"date":"2026-04-16T01:00:07","date_gmt":"2026-04-16T01:00:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/251796\/"},"modified":"2026-04-16T01:00:07","modified_gmt":"2026-04-16T01:00:07","slug":"paxton-investigates-alleged-illegal-dei-teachings-at-university-of-north-texas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/251796\/","title":{"rendered":"Paxton investigates alleged “illegal” DEI teachings at University of North Texas"},"content":{"rendered":"

AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is investigating alleged “illegal teachings” at the University of North Texas related to the state’s diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) laws.<\/p>\n

According to the Office of the Attorney General, the investigation<\/a> centers on a video taken in June 2025 and shared by nonprofit activist group Accuracy in Media. The video appears to show an alleged staff member in the social work department at UNT discussing ways in which the department is circumventing state restrictions on DEI curriculum.<\/p>\n

“Our classes might be titled something a little different to just not specifically have ‘DEI’ noted, like as the class name, but it’s still an element that’s taught,” the alleged staff member said in the video.<\/p>\n

She goes on to note that DEI competency is part of the accreditation requirements for the Council on Social Work Education.<\/p>\n

“This should result in immediate termination,” Paxton said in a statement last week. “Texas deserves better than a UNT leadership that systematically allows the worst elements of the radical Left to run its campus.\u201d<\/p>\n

ALSO| Austin council member calls AG probe “political grandstanding,” says city follows law<\/a><\/p>\n

According to a report by KERA News<\/a>, the NPR affiliate in North Texas, the university said the staff member is no longer employed at UNT.<\/p>\n

In 2023, Gov. Greg Abbott signed Senate Bill 17<\/a> into law, which restricted public universities’ abilities to operate DEI offices, initiatives, or hiring practices.<\/p>\n

Tyler Coward, lead counsel for government affairs at the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression (FIRE), said Paxton’s announcement seems to contradict state law.<\/p>\n

“The Attorney General’s announcement that they’re investigating the University of North Texas for allegedly violating the law by including DEI-related topics in curriculum strikes me as bizarre, since SB 17 expressly exempts academic instruction from the law’s DEI prohibitions because academic freedom and the right to teach and discuss ideas in college classrooms is protected by the First Amendment,” he said.<\/p>\n

SB 17 specifically notes<\/a> the law “may not be construed to apply to” a list of exemptions, including, “academic course instruction.”<\/p>\n

The Office of the Attorney General, however, argues the video suggests a circumvention of the law.<\/p>\n

“The staff member goes on to imply that there are ways in which members of the university staff ‘get around’ the law to continue pushing their woke agenda,” the office wrote.<\/p>\n

Paxton’s office sent a letter to UNT’s Dean of the College of Public Affairs and Human Sciences, demanding a statement on the university’s compliance with Texas DEI law and a copy of all communication between university leadership and staff members related to DEI.<\/p>\n

“Videos like this essentially reinforce that belief that many state universities are not complying with the spirit of the legislation,” said Mark P. Jones, a political science expert at Rice University.<\/p>\n

Jones said the content of the video could fall in a legal gray area.<\/p>\n

“I think many universities faced with legislation that in some areas is vague are taking a risk-averse approach and perhaps are overly enforcing the law compared to what the state would require,” he said.<\/p>\n

Texas students who support DEI initiatives, like AJ Thomas of Texas Woman’s University, argue Paxton’s investigation is an example of state overreach.<\/p>\n

“I think they know that the laws that they wanted to pass didn’t go as far as they were hoping they would,” Thomas said. “They are trying to make up for that by using their power to intimidate and force instructors and universities into over-complying now, into doing the things that they were hoping to do with the law that got watered down.”<\/p>\n

CBS Austin contacted UNT for a response to the Attorney General’s accusations, but did not receive a response by Wednesday evening.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AUSTIN, Texas \u2014 Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton is investigating alleged “illegal teachings” at the University of North…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":251797,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[27,29,28],"class_list":["post-251796","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-texas","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251796","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=251796"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/251796\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/251797"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=251796"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=251796"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=251796"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}