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The Texas House on Tuesday gave initial approval to a measure that would require schools to use a common but controversial definition of antisemitism in student disciplinary proceedings.
The bill got preliminarily approved on a 134-2 vote, with State Rep. Christian Manuel, D-Port Arthur, and state Rep. Ana-María Rodríguez Ramos, D-Richardson, as the two nay votes. The bill, which was already approved by the Senate, will head over to Abbott’s desk once it receives final approval from the House.
During the floor debate Tuesday, state Rep. Giovanni Capriglione, who guided Senate Bill 326 through the lower chamber, tried to assure his colleagues that the legislation would not lead to schools punishing constitutionally-protected speech.
That’s because the proposal does not create a new student code of conduct violation for antisemitism for public K-12 schools, open enrollment charters or colleges and universities, Capriglione said. It simply gives administrators a definition and examples to use when deciding whether a violation of their existing codes of conduct was motivated by antisemitism, he said. It also doesn’t prescribe the type of disciplinary action that should be taken.
“Students are not going to be punished for voicing their views on Middle East policy or debating the history of Zionism. That is well within their rights,” the Southlake Republican said.
The only Jewish member of the House, state Rep. Jon Rosenthal, refused to vote for the bill without the chamber first adopting an amendment that explicitly stated it was not the Legislature’s intent that this bill punish speech protected by the First Amendment.
“It may surprise some of you to learn that Jewish communities do not uniformly support this bill,” Rosenthal said after the amendment was adopted.
The Houston Democrat said he has heard some Jewish Texans say the bill would give visibility to rising antisemitism, which the Center for Antisemitism Research reported has increased by 135% in K-12 schools in the past year.
But Rosenthal also said other Jewish Texans think the International Holocaust Remembrance Alliance’s definition and examples dangerously conflate legitimate criticism of the Israeli government’s policies with antisemitism.
“Some Jewish critics express concern that this type of legislation singles out the Jewish community and could actually bolster and reinforce antisemitic tropes and stereotypes of Jews as privileged and influential,” he said. “I would suggest that if we really wanted to address religious discrimination, religious persecution, in bullying, that we would be crafting a law to go after any form of religious persecution.”
Last spring, college students across the country, including in Texas, protested the war between Israel and Hamas and demanded that their universities divest from companies tied to Israel or weapons manufacturing. Some Texas leaders decried those protests as antisemitic, and the presidents of the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Texas at Dallas called authorities, resulting in the arrest of more than a hundred people.
Critics have said the bill could punish or discourage some students from exercising their free speech rights.
“I just think it goes too broad, and I hate to say this, I think it's too un-American,” Manuel said.
The Texas Tribune partners with Open Campus on higher education coverage.
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