Bill Avera of the Texas School District Police Chiefs Association just testified in front of the Texas Senate Committee on Education on the implementation of SB 571 and he advocated for once again allowing ISD police departments to investigate educator misconduct—even while acknowledging that, in the past, some school districts and ISD police departments failed to properly investigate these cases and instead swept them under the rug. Avera argued that requiring outside law enforcement to investigate educator misconduct is becoming a burden on local law enforcement agencies and is taking officers away from violent-crime investigations. But SB 571’s requirement that allegations of educator misconduct be reported to outside law enforcement was an important step toward addressing the inherent conflicts of interest that can arise when school districts investigate their own employees. Those conflicts contributed to situations in which misconduct was overlooked or inadequately addressed, allowing abuse to continue and leaving countless Texas schoolchildren vulnerable. We should not go backward. School district police should not be responsible for investigating allegations of misconduct involving the very employees and institutions they serve. The answer to the burden on outside law enforcement should be to provide those agencies with the resources necessary to conduct these investigations—not to return investigative authority to the school districts. Ultimately, we should be asking a broader question: Why do school districts need their own police departments at all? #ProtectTexasKids #txlege @TrueTexasTea @TexasEd911 @DonnaCampbellTX @TeamBettencourt @TexasGOP @drbone4tx