{"id":404348,"date":"2026-08-12T08:14:12","date_gmt":"2026-08-12T08:14:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/404348\/"},"modified":"2026-08-12T08:14:12","modified_gmt":"2026-08-12T08:14:12","slug":"tougher-penalities-for-teacher-misconduct-proposed-by-texas-governor","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/404348\/","title":{"rendered":"Tougher penalities for teacher misconduct proposed by Texas governor"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Texas teachers who have inappropriate relationships with students would face a minimum of 10 years in prison under a proposal by Gov. Greg Abbott.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">The governor pushed for stricter penalties for educators convicted of abusing students during a roundtable in Lubbock on Tuesday. Such teachers would have to register as a sex offender and face at least 10 years in prison with no parole, <a href=\"https:\/\/directory.texastribune.org\/greg-abbott\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Abbott<\/a> said.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Texas House Speaker Dustin Burrows backed the proposal, signaling it will be a priority for the lower chamber when state lawmakers convene next year.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">More than 1,700 allegations of inappropriate romantic and sexual relationships or communications between teachers and students in Texas schools were reported in 2026, three times that of the previous year, according to <a href=\"https:\/\/tea4avcastro.tea.state.tx.us\/edconduct\/reporting.html\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">state data on teacher misconduct<\/a>. <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">Nearly 400 investigations were closed after a preliminary review. It is unclear how many reports led to convictions.<\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\">\u201cWith literally thousands of violations in just the past two years, clearly the message has not been received to stop assaulting students in our schools,\u201d Abbott said. \u201cI want zero victimization by inappropriate teacher-student relationships. I want a law that will accomplish that mission.\u201d <\/p>\n<p class=\"wp-block-paragraph\"><a href=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/2017\/03\/08\/texas-senate-bill-inappropriate-teacher-student-relationships\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">A 2017 Texas law<\/a> requires a teacher involved in an inappropriate relationship with a student to forfeit teaching credentials and lose their taxpayer pensions <a href=\"https:\/\/capitol.texas.gov\/tlodocs\/85R\/analysis\/pdf\/SB00007F.pdf\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">if convicted<\/a>. Superintendents or principals who \u201cturned a blind-eye\u201d to misconduct and failed to report improper relationships could face fines up to $10,000 or jail time. <\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a href=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/author\/sneha-dey\/\" rel=\"author nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" alt=\"Avatar photo\" src=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/12\/cropped-cropped-cropped-SnehaDey-Headshot-scaled-1-120x120.jpg\"  class=\"avatar avatar-120 photo\" height=\"120\" width=\"120\"\/>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a><\/p>\n<p>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\tSneha Dey is an education reporter for The Texas Tribune, working in partnership with Open Campus. She covers pathways from education to employment and the accessibility of postsecondary education in Texas,&#8230;\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<a class=\"author-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.texastribune.org\/author\/sneha-dey\/\" rel=\"author nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\"><br \/>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tMore by Sneha Dey\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/a>\n\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Texas teachers who have inappropriate relationships with students would face a minimum of 10 years in prison under&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":404349,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[1865,392,168,11538,27,2810,29,1862,293,28],"class_list":["post-404348","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-texas","tag-dustin-burrows","tag-greg-abbott","tag-lubbock","tag-state-agencies","tag-texas","tag-texas-education-agency","tag-texas-headlines","tag-texas-house-of-representatives","tag-texas-legislature","tag-texas-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404348","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=404348"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/404348\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/404349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=404348"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=404348"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=404348"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}