SAN MARCOS, Texas — Texas State University has received $1.3 million to help train schools in the state to tackle violence against teachers.
The grant comes in response to what experts are calling a "growing national phenomenon" of students attacking teachers and school administrators. It's something that's affecting school climates and the ability to retain teachers.
The grant will support the training for three years and will guide schools through the best way to handle specific scenarios, as well as teach them how to develop policies to address teacher victimization.
Texas State will begin training educators across Texas in January.
A portion of the funding for the grant comes from the U.S. Department of Justice’s STOP School Violence Program, part of U.S. Sen. John Cornyn’s Mental Health and School Safety Bill. The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, which passed in 2022, addresses mass shootings with an investment in mental health crisis intervention programs and school safety.
“The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act is about mental health, school safety and ensuring that the tragedy that struck Uvalde was not in vain,” said Sen. Cornyn in a media release on Monday. “I’m grateful this law is giving schools across our state the resources needed to keep students, staff and teachers safe.”
The grant will go to the Texas School Safety Center at Texas State University, a research center that “serves as the central location for school safety in the state,” Director Kathy Martinez-Prather told KVUE’s media partners at the Austin-American Statesman. The center provides school safety initiatives and mandates to state schools, and trains schools in assessing behavioral threats, emergency operations, mental health, bullying prevention and drug use.