Interacting With Police 101 Taught By Texas High Schools
Do you know how to interact with police officers when pulled over? Do your kids? If not, the Texas lawmakers are here to help. The Texas Senate unanimously passed Senate Bill 30 on Wednesday that would require high schools and driver education courses to develop curriculum on how to interact with police officers. Also included in the bill is civilian interaction training for officers attending academies.
According to the Texas Tribune, the curriculum would include a few different focus areas.
All three will be taught the same things, including the responsibility and duties of law enforcement, a person's rights during an interaction, proper behavior for each party involved and how to file a complaint against an officer.
Local school boards would have a say in what their students learn, Sen. John Whitmire, D-Houston, told his colleagues on the Senate floor. Urban and rural communities may have different perspectives on what their students should learn, he said.
"It would probably need to be fashioned differently," said Whitmire, an author of the bill.
The bill will now head to the House where it's fate is unknown. According to the Texas Observer, no one testified against the bill in the Senate, but the Houston chapter of Black Lives Matter opposed the bill.