Abbott Decries Indoctrination at Protests
after Bid to Put TPUSA in Texas Schools
Capitol Inside
January 31, 2026
A month after hatching a push to establish chapters for the conservative advocacy group Turning Point USA in Texas public schools, Governor Greg Abbott launched an investigation into the Austin school district on Friday night for failing to stop students from walking out of classes to protest the federal immigration crackdown earlier that day.
Abbott chose to overlook anti-ICE demonstrations at high schools that took place throughout out the week in districts outside the central city in Austin and across South Texas as well before ordering Texas Agency Commissioner Mike Morath to investigate AISD. More than 30 high schools in the San Antonio area had students walking out of class for protests against President Donald Trump's immigration raids and deportation policies.
An estimated 50 students at Churchill High School in the Northeast ISD left third-period classes in unison on Wednesday and marched together for two miles down Blanco Road with chants and signs expressing their disdain for ICE and the violence that agents have left in their wake in Minnesota in the past few weeks.
Protests that were organized had students streaming out of class to exercise their constitutional right to free speech at Alamo Heights High School in an affluent inner-city enclave near downtown San Antonio. Demonstrations against ICE took place at Northside ISD schools in the Alamo City and the legendary Jefferson High School in the San Antonio ISD before students in Austin followed suit with the protest that piqued the governor's anger after he'd ignored dozens of others earlier in the week.
"AISD gets taxpayer dollars to teach the subjects required by the state, not to help students skip school to protest," Abbott declared in a post on X. "Our schools are for educating our children, not political indoctrination. This is one of many reasons why AISD is losing so many students."
The Austin school districts had informed parents in a letter that it hadn't "sponsored or endorsed" the walkouts on Thursday and Friday at schools in the local area including some that are not part of AISD. But the district said it would not stop students at its schools from participating if they chose to do so - citing a U.S. Supreme Court their cemented the right of students to protest during school hours.
“Our students are exercising their right under the First Amendment, and their parents have been notified," AISD said in a post on its X page. "No absence will be excused.”
State Rep. Brad Buckley - a Salado Republican who chairs the Public Education Committee in the Texas House - appeared to take a shot at AISD in a social media post that followed the governor's lead by failing to acknowledge the dozens of other protest that were staged at high schools around the state
"Students being escorted by admin and ISD police is at least de facto endorsement of the walk out," Buckley said on X. "Numerous ISDs in Texas met this head on and kept kids where they belong - in the classroom. Don’t tell me it can’t be done."
Neither Abbott or Buckley offered guidance on how schools would get around the historic high court ruling that affirmed the right of students to exercise First Amendment rights in the case Tinker v. Des Moines in 1969. The case stemmed from a suit by a group of students who'd been suspended for wearing black armbands to protest the Vietnam war.
more to come ...
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