At the same time Governor Abbott promotes far-right partisan political groups like Turning Point in public schools, he is threatening students and educators who engage in peaceful protest. Free speech? Only if it agrees with him. Otherwise, he calls it “political indoctrination” and shuts it down.
On February 3rd, the governor told the Texas Education Agency to investigate teachers who “facilitate” or “encourage” students to exercise their First Amendment rights, including walkouts protesting ICE detentions. Under new TEA guidance, teachers could face disciplinary action or even lose their licenses. School districts that allow or fail to suppress student walkouts are now threatened with losing funding or even state takeover. Abbott has called the walkouts “political indoctrination” and said staff who allow them should be treated as “co‑conspirators.”
For families and educators wondering what this means, the ACLU of Texas Students’ Rights Hub has practical guidance on student rights and how to keep schools safe and welcoming.
After school on Feb. 3, hundreds of HISD students and elected officials protested outside Sam Houston Math, Science and Technology Center amid student walkouts across Texas. The protest focused on senior Mauro Yosueth Henriquez, a varsity soccer captain and church volunteer who has been held in ICE detention since mid-December.“He’s supposed to be graduating,” said senior Alexander Mendoza. “What happened to him shouldn’t happen to anybody.”
Stories like Mauro’s are exactly why students are walking out, because immigration enforcement is disrupting education, separating families, and harming young people across Texas.
On Feb 4th, the TEA announced the creation of a new Inspector General for Educator Misconduct, naming Levi Fuller, a former assistant attorney general under Abbott, to enforce educator misconduct policies and investigations. State Senator Bettencourt failed for years to pass a law creating this position, so Abbott and TEA Commissioner Morath simply created it without a law.
This is not what democracy looks like.
Most inspector general offices exist by statute to root out fraud, waste, and abuse within an agency. The TEA’s version flips that purpose on its head. Instead of overseeing the agency, it is aimed at policing educators.
Abbott is turning TEA into a political enforcement machine designed to scare teachers into silence. This is alarming and unprecedented. Abbott aggressively pushes Turning Point USA clubs in every Texas high school while threatening teachers and students who support civic engagement, such as walkouts protesting ICE detentions.
Turning Point was founded by Charlie Kirk and promotes ideas rooted in white nationalism. Last month, Abbott threatened schools that block Turning Point clubs, saying “any school that stands in the way of a Club America program in their school should be reported immediately to the Texas Education Agency.” This is a blatant double standard.
To Governor Abbott, political expression is only acceptable when it aligns with his conservative agenda, undermining the principle that free speech in Texas schools should be universal.
It’s time to fight back. Keep your kids home on Thursday, Feb. 12, and join the HISD Student Sickout. Stand up against Miles, against TEA’s intimidation of teachers and ICE out of our schools. Free Mauro and his dad.
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