Texas School Police Used Excessive Force on Students, Investigation Finds

School police officers across Texas repeatedly used pepper spray, physical takedowns, and Tasers against students — often over minor misbehavior — with little accountability, according to a sweeping joint investigation by The New York Times and the San Antonio Express-News. Reporters identified more than 2,600 use-of-force incidents from January 2022 through December 2025, with students left injured in nearly a quarter of the 450 detailed cases reviewed.

The Scope of Force in Texas Schools

Texas is an outlier in school policing. The state is home to nearly 400 school district police departments — more than all other U.S. states combined — and approximately 11,000 officers trained to work in its schools, exceeding the total number of police officers in at least two dozen states. The investigation found that officers grabbed or tackled students hundreds of times, used pepper spray in dozens of cases, shocked students with Tasers in at least nine incidents, and held teenagers at gunpoint on four occasions.

Many incidents began over dress-code violations, vaping, swearing, or schoolyard scraps. Officers used physical takedown tactics in about 60 situations when students ignored commands, talked back, or pulled away. About two dozen cases involved elementary school children, including a 6-year-old who was handcuffed after kicking a school employee during a tantrum.

The Post-Uvalde Security Expansion

The findings come in the wake of Texas’s ambitious school security push following the 2022 Robb Elementary massacre in Uvalde, where 19 students and two teachers were killed and police waited over an hour before confronting the shooter. In 2023, the Texas Legislature passed a law requiring at least one licensed police officer at every public school campus. Annual school security spending rose from approximately $900 million to more than $1.3 billion, and the number of school-trained officers jumped from roughly 8,000 to 11,000.

School officers have confiscated dozens of guns in the San Antonio region alone and have thwarted potential attacks, including a foiled shooting plot at a middle school in May 2025. But the investigation found that the constant presence of officers has also transformed the way many public schools manage discipline.

Alycia Castillo, associate director of policy and advocacy at the Texas Civil Rights Project, told the Times that lawmakers had their “eyes wide open” about the potential consequences of dramatically expanding police presence in schools without establishing accountability mechanisms.

A System Without Oversight

According to the investigation, no state agency has the power to routinely review school officers’ actions. A 2019 Texas law meant to keep officers out of “routine student discipline” does not define the term or detail repercussions for violations. Police departments are not required to report incidents of force in schools unless they shoot someone. The Texas Commission on Law Enforcement cannot investigate excessive force complaints unless the officer was criminally charged.

School boards, which state officials say are responsible for oversight, largely do not view police oversight as their role. “We just approve what they need to buy,” Michael Valdez, a board member in the Edgewood school district in San Antonio, told the Times.

When officers were disciplined, they typically received verbal warnings or orders for additional training. Supervisors almost always determined that force was appropriate.

Inadequate Training

Texas mandates only 20 hours of training for school police officers — half the 40-hour minimum recommended by the National Association of School Resource Officers. By comparison, Kentucky, which also mandates officers at all schools, requires 120 hours. The Texas training includes child psychology and conflict resolution, but officers frequently report being pulled into minor disciplinary matters.

Students Speak Out

The investigation documented harrowing accounts from students who were subjected to force. Tayshawn Chadwick, 17, was shocked with a Taser by a school officer in the Aldine school district in December 2023 after trying to retrieve his house keys from a classroom. “It felt like a lightning bolt,” he recalled. He was charged with resisting arrest and held in the county jail; the charge was dismissed after he completed an anger-management program.

Anabelle Jaramillo, a 17-year-old honor student, was arrested in May 2024 after accidentally dislodging a $13 doorbell at Texas City High School. Body camera footage shows deputies wrestling the 4-foot-11 teenager onto her belly and handcuffing her. Anabelle, who has panic attacks, passed out during the arrest. “I thought they’re there to hear you out, to build you up and get you into the future,” she told reporters. “Instead, they broke me down.”

Legal Barriers to Accountability

A 2023 ruling by the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals — which covers Texas — created a significant legal hurdle for families seeking justice. The court ruled that a Taser use on a 17-year-old student with an intellectual disability was akin to corporal punishment, which is legal in Texas. This decision has made it more difficult for families to hold officers accountable through federal lawsuits.

What’s Next

The investigation raises urgent questions about whether the Texas Legislature will respond with new oversight legislation, how school districts that declined to share data will be held accountable, and whether federal civil rights investigations will follow. For now, the report paints a stark picture of a system where the officers meant to protect students have, in hundreds of cases, become a source of harm — with no independent body empowered to intervene.