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Donna Howard’s HB 1735 attempts to fix issues with Title IX sexual assault reporting procedures at Texas colleges and universities brought up by survivors and advocates. The bill is almost identical to legislation Howard filed last session, which passed the House but died in the Senate because of a mandatory reporting amendment added by Joan Huffman that survivors opposed. This year’s bill would require schools to provide trauma-informed training to campus police and clearly define the Title IX reporting process as well as better educate students about it.
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- A Tale of Two Prison Systems: Two very different approaches emerged in key House and Senate committee hearings this week on Texas’ scandal-plagued adult and juvenile prison systems. John Whitmire, the Houston Democrat and longtime chair of the Texas Senate Criminal Justice Committee, spent nearly 90 minutes chastising Texas Juvenile Justice Department executive director Camille Cain, who joined the agency little more than a year ago. Whitmire — irritated by headlines in his local paper about “gang wars” at Texas’ juvenile lockups and frustrated that monthly inspection reports from a state-appointed independent watchdog still show barely-managed chaos at the agency — proposed big, bold reform: shuttering the state’s five far-flung juvenile lockups and relocating the system’s remaining 850 kids to an old state jail north of Austin.
Whitmire barely questioned Texas Department of Criminal Justice executive director Bryan Collier, despite the steady beat of lawsuits and scandals revealing similarly inhumane conditions and unfair treatment on the adult side. At the same time, members of the House Corrections Committee this week were debating whether TDCJ even needs an independent oversight office. While his committee considered a bill by state Representative Jarvis Johnson, D-Houston, to create the office, corrections committee chair and East Texas Republican state Representative James White reminded everyone that similar proposals have been floated for years and always fail — translation: this year’s no different. Johnson called prison oversight a civil rights issue and argued it would prevent abuse and lawsuits. “If this bill does not pass, I guarantee you, you’re going to hear it again,” he told the committee. “The fact is, this is the right thing to do.”
- Campus Sexual Assault: The House Higher Education Committee heard charged and tearful testimony on three bills intended to address issues raised by students who have experienced sexual assault on Wednesday. HB 1735, filed by Representative Donna Howard seeks to fix the Title IX sexual assault reporting process, which student advocates say is confusing and burdensome for survivors. HB 617, filed by Representative Victoria Neave, directs the state to study why college students at public schools under report sexual assaults. (Advocates say it has a lot to do with the aforementioned issues with the Title IX process, but we’ll find out more if Neave’s bill passes.) Finally, Higher Education Committee Chair Chris Turner introduced HB 449, which would require schools include a notation on the transcripts of students who are expelled for sexual assault or leave school during a pending investigation. Turner shared the story of Jacob Anderson, who was expelled from Baylor University in 2016 after being investigated for sexual assault but then transferred to the University of Texas at Dallas, as justification for his bill.
- Campus Free Speech: On Monday, the Senate State Affairs Committee heard SB 18, by Chair Joan Huffman, which seeks to protect “free speech” on campus. The bill is a response to Texas universities’ attempts to stop incidents of violence and hate speech on campuses, as well as controversies surrounding polarizing speakers. Both increased markedly during the 2016 campaign and after the election of Donald Trump. According to the Anti-Defamation League, there were at least 147 instances of white supremacist recruitment efforts on college campuses in the 2016-2017 school year, with Texas State University reporting the most in Texas. Young Conservatives of Texas members from five schools showed up to testify in favor of the bill, and Huffman admitted in an interview with the Observer that the bill is a direct response to conservative students’ complaints that they’re being discriminated against by liberal administrators. The bill passed out of committee unanimously Monday, and Huffman said it will likely make its way to the full Senate for a vote next week.
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Political Reference Bandanas Now Available in the Texas Observer Store
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SENATE DISTRICT 11
Counties: Brazoria, Galveston, Harris
Biggest city: Houston
“Fun” fact: Taylor this week filed SB 4, the upper chamber’s school finance bill that supplements Patrick’s $5,000 teacher pay raise legislation. The bill has several placeholders, and doesn’t exactly specify how new money that the Senate has set aside for schools will be spent. Overall, the Senate has about $6 billion earmarked for new school funding, but almost $4 million of that will go to the teacher pay raises.
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Lieutenant Governor Dan Patrick got tricked by a high school student into unveiling a painting that said "ABOLISH ICE" at a Tea Party event in Tarrant County this week. The teenager, Caleb Brock, said he was motivated by what he sees as Immigration and Customs Enforcement’s (ICE) inhumane policies and Patrick’s refusal to speak out against them. Photo courtesy of Caleb Brock.
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Kolten Parker, Kate Groetzinger, and Collyn Burke contributed to this newsletter.
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