Under the proposal Governor Greg Abbott (R) announced last week, educators convicted of inappropriate relationships with students would face a mandatory minimum sentence of 10 years in prison.
The proposal would also prohibit community supervision and deferred adjudication in place of incarceration, prevent parole or mandatory supervision before an offender has served at least 10 years, and require offenders to register as sex offenders.
Brian Camenker of MassResistance says Abbott's proposal is appropriate.
"We're dealing with one school district, Redlands, Californian, where the school system was almost shut down by the state over these kinds of things," he relays.
According to Worldmetrics, fewer than half of teacher sexual abuse cases lead to criminal convictions, but the victims face lasting harm.
Camenker says the problem is worse than people realize.
"I have a friend who, when he was in high school, had a sexual relationship with one of his female teachers who was married," the activist shares. "It affected his whole life. He was never the same after that."
Elizabeth Jeglic, Ph.D., an internationally renowned sexual violence prevention expert, has said that that providing support and counseling for students who allege educator sexual misconduct is one of the many ways to address the problem.
Texas has tried fighting the issue by stripping offenders of their teaching certificates and pensions, penalizing administrators who fail to properly report misconduct, restricting improper electronic communications between educators and students, and creating a Do Not Hire Registry.
Even so, the problem seems to be getting worse.
When Gov. Abbott announced the proposal, he noted that more than 1,600 allegations of inappropriate educator-student relationships were reported last year—nearly three times the number from the previous year.
"Clearly, the message has not been received to stop assaulting students in our schools," he said at a press conference in Lubbock.
He said thousands of violations in recent years demonstrate the need for harsher consequences.
While prosecutors could still negotiate plea agreements under his proposal, an offender would have to spend at least a decade incarcerated, regardless of whether a conviction resulted from a trial or plea agreement.
