Democrat Texas state Rep. James Talarico faced backlash Friday over a resurfaced 2019 interview in which he defended a bill requiring schools to maintain at least four mental health professionals for every one police officer on campus.
Talarico, a Presbyterian seminarian and former middle school teacher, defeated Democratic Texas Representative Jasmine Crockett in the March 3 Democratic primary for the seat currently held by Republican Sen. John Cornyn. In a 2019 appearance on the Trey Blocker Show, Talarico defended the legislation he introduced, arguing that having police officers on site to protect schools was accepting a “culture of violence.”
“So you know, obviously we’re all concerned about school safety and recent school shootings, and that concern in some ways has been channeled unproductively toward militarizing schools and toward kind of leaning into a culture of violence and adding more law enforcement officials into campuses,” Talarico told Blocker.
LISTEN:
“And so our bill would mandate that for every one law enforcement official a school district places into a school, you have to have four mental health care professionals, whether that’s a counselor or a social worker or a clinical psychologist,” Talarico said. “The idea is that when students walk through the hallways of their school they should see far more counselors than they do cops.”
Talarico introduced HB 1467 in 2019, a bill that would have mandated a four-to-one ratio for schools or districts with more than 5,000 students, in 2019. Talarico also supported other efforts to limit police. The bill did not advance out of committee.
In 2021, Talarico worked to preserve funding cuts to the Austin Police Department after a grassroots group put an initiative on the ballot for the November 2021 election to restore the funding.
“I’m proud to stand with one of the largest coalitions in Austin history to oppose Prop A. It’s not too late to join us,” Talarico posted on Nov. 2, 2021.
The proposition failed, securing a little more than 31% of the vote, the Dallas Express reported. (RELATED: Teacher Keeps Job After Allegedly ‘Licking’ Student’s Foot On Video)
“This is a scary combination of two of James Talarico’s favorite things – defunding the police and pushing his woke agenda on kids,” Republican National Committee spokesperson Zach Kraft told the Daily Caller News Foundation. “Texans will have the same answer for Talarico at the ballot box that he had for police, ‘we don’t want you here.’”
“This is a flat out lie: James opposes defunding the police, and has a proven track record voting to send billions of dollars to support law enforcement. James’ proposed legislation supports the police by adding desperately needed mental health officials to help prevent tragic events like the mass shooting at Robb Elementary in Uvalde, Texas,” Talarico spokesperson JT Ennis told the DCNF. “While John Cornyn, Ken Paxton, and the billionaires who prop them up play politics with school shootings by presenting a false choice between funding law enforcement and funding mental health resources for kids, James will continue standing up against both political parties to fix this broken, corrupt political system.”
All content created by the Daily Caller News Foundation, an independent and nonpartisan newswire service, is available without charge to any legitimate news publisher that can provide a large audience. All republished articles must include our logo, our reporter’s byline and their DCNF affiliation. For any questions about our guidelines or partnering with us, please contact [email protected].
