SB 2432 adds a new offense to the list of those that require a DAEP placement. I predict that this one will lead to a big jump in referrals from teachers asking that students be assigned to DAEP.
The bill amends Texas Education Code 37.006, which lays out the mandatory DAEP offenses. It says the student must go to DAEP if the student:
Engages in conduct that contains the elements of the offense of harassment under Section 42.07 (a) (1), (2), (3), or (7), Penal Code against an employee of the school district.
So is that one new DAEP offense, or four? The umbrella term is “harassment” but the statute identifies four ways in which a student can commit “harassment.”
The relevant sections of the Penal Code are as follows:
A person commits an offense if, with intent to harass, annoy, alarm, abuse, torment, or embarrass another, the person:
(1) Initiates communication and in the course of the communication makes a comment, request, suggestion or proposal that is obscene;
(2) Threatens, in a manner reasonably likely to alarm the person receiving the threat, to inflict bodily injury on the person or to commit a felony offense against the person, a member of the person’s family or household, or the person’s property;
(3) Conveys, in a manner reasonably likely to alarm the person receiving the report, a false report, which is known by the conveyor to be false, that another person has suffered death or serious bodily injury;
(7) Sends repeated electronic communications in a manner reasonably likely to harass, annoy, alarm, abuse, torment, embarrass, or offend another.
It’s that first one that is likely to be cited most often. A student “initiates communication” in the course of which the student utters the famous F-word. Perhaps the F-word is followed by “you.” Do we now have evidence of a “suggestion or proposal that is obscene” done with “intent to harass, annoy, alarm, abuse, torment, or embarrass” the teacher?
I think a lot of teachers will see it that way. Get ready for lot of kids being sent to the office.
DAWG BONE: CHAPTER 37 NEVER GETS SHORTER.
Tomorrow: Will it “pass mustard” with the court?