AUSTIN (Nexstar) — Protests against the ongoing war in Gaza erupted last week at the University of Texas at Austin and its system schools, prompting debate about free speech on college campuses. 

UT officials called on DPS officers in riot gear, along with UT and Austin police departments, to contain the protest and prevent encampments. Law enforcement arrested 57 individuals on criminal trespass charges, all of which were dropped. 

“It was in light of what had happened in Columbia, for example, and Yale and other places around the country where the thing had really escalated and spun out of control,” said Texas Sen. John Cornyn in an interview with KXAN. 

“The University of Texas here in Austin wanted to make sure that while they respected the free speech rights of the protesters, as they should, that the rights of the students to pursue their education wasn’t impinged upon, or that it didn’t become violent. So I think they were very prepared,” he continued. 

The university argued the protest would have infringed on other students’ rights by disrupting the campus during finals. However, the arrests sparked frustrations about free speech protections among protestors.

Kevin Lawrence, with the Texas Municipal Police Association, said officers are trained to spot when a protest crosses the line.

“All rights under the Constitution are limited at the point where your exercise of that right infringes on the rights of other individuals,” Lawrence said. “Law enforcement officers are taught free speech stops to be free speech when it becomes disorderly conduct.”

JT Morris, a senior attorney with the Foundation for Individual Rights and Expression, said that action may amount to preemptive censorship. The organization advocates for First Amendment Rights.

“What the university should have done is warn the students ‘If you do engage in conduct that violates neutral, reasonable time/place/manner restrictions or you do engage in violence, then we will act.’ But they shouldn’t have tried to preempt and cancel a protest, what turned out to be a very peaceful process ahead of time,” Morris said.

Cornyn is one of 26 Republicans in the Senate to sign a letter to the attorney general and education secretary saying the government needs to take action to “restore order and protect Jewish students on our college campuses.” That letter came out one day before the protests on the UT campus.

“It’s hard to generalize and say that everybody who’s protesting Israel’s reaction to the Hamas attacks is anti semitic, but certainly some of it is,” Cornyn said, “and I think it’s important to make sure that people understand that this could spin out of control.”

In response to the protests’ calls for ceasefire, Cornyn said that’s unrealistic. 

“If there was a ceasefire, Israel would put down its arms, but Hamas would not,” he said. “It’s important for people to be educated and informed about the whole picture and the context in which it is happening and not just looking at it like you’re looking through a soda straw.” 

Last week, Congress passed a multi-billion dollar aid package for Israel, Gaza, Ukraine and Taiwan. Cornyn voted in favor of the bill. 

“We are whether we like it or not the indispensable leader to maintain world peace,” Cornyn said, “and we do that through our military strength and supporting our allies.” 

“History does have a way of repeating itself. I thought it was very important not to encourage Putin to continue his march across Ukraine, where I do not believe he will stop, and to prevent bigger regional and maybe worse conflicts,” he added. 

Cornyn is already mentioned as a potential Republican leader of the Senate after November’s elections. “I’d like to get the Senate back working again, to try to solve problems on a bipartisan basis and help move the country forward and hopefully make the rest of the country a little bit more like Texas,” Cornyn said. 

New national nursing home staffing rules face pushback

Vice President Kamala Harris announced an unprecedented rule requiring minimum staffing standards in nursing homes nationwide has been finalized, according to the White House.

In a news release on Monday, the White House said this rule will deliver on a promise from President Joe Biden’s 2022 State of the Union “to crack down on nursing homes that endanger resident safety.”

The finalized staffing standards appear to mirror the 2023 proposal from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services through the Centers for Medicare & Medicaid Services (CMS). It will require any skilled nursing facility that receives federal funding through Medicare and Medicaid to offer 0.55 hours of care from a registered nurse to each resident every day, as well as 2.45 hours of care from a nurse aide. It will also require facilities to have a registered nurse onsite 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

“When facilities are understaffed, residents may go without basic necessities like baths, trips to the bathroom, and meals – and it is less safe when residents have a medical emergency,” the White House release reads.

Harris made the announcement before a trip to Wisconsin, where she is expected to talk to nursing home employees about their work, according to the Associated Press.

The nursing home industry has been ringing alarm bells about staffing shortages – exacerbated by the pandemic – for years. Leaders in the industry complained the proposed standards would be difficult for facilities to meet.

At the time, CMS estimated approximately 75% of nursing homes would have to strengthen staffing in their facilities in order to meet the new standards. 

After Monday’s announcement, the American Health Care Association (AHCA), which represents more than 14,000 nursing homes and other long-term care facilities, called the standards “unreasonable.”

AHCA President and CEO Mark Parkinson said in a statement that “issuing a final rule that demands hundreds of thousands of additional caregivers when there’s a nationwide shortfall of nurses just creates an impossible task for providers. This unfunded mandate doesn’t magically solve the nursing crisis.”

Parkinson also said he was “disappointed and troubled” to see the rule move forward, despite concerns from experts, stakeholders and lawmakers.

Earlier this year, the proposed rule change ignited pushback from a mostly Republican coalition of congressional representatives. U.S. Rep. Michelle Fischbach, R-Minnesota, filed HR 7513, a bill intended to thwart the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services from finalizing the rules for minimum staffing standards.

At a March hearing of the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee, Fischbach described the proposal as a “one-size-fits-all” mandate that many nursing homes — particularly in rural areas — would not be able to comply with.

“These facilities are already struggling to maintain their staffing levels and have an even harder time finding new staff to fill positions,” she said at the hearing. “But the Biden Administration simply does not understand the problem – which comes as no surprise, since they do not understand rural America.”

Since the White House has announced the rule’s finalization, it isn’t clear what impact Fischbach’s law would have. Her bill, which was cosponsored by 19 Republicans and one Democrat, remains pending. The bill would need to pass the U.S. House and Senate and be signed by Biden to become law, according to congressional records.

U.S. Rep. Lloyd Doggett, D-Texas, has been supportive of implementing staffing standards and even led more than 100 other lawmakers to pen a letter encouraging CMS to strengthen the staffing requirements.

“While much more is needed to ensure sufficient care and resident safety, I am pleased that this represents some hope of better care for vulnerable nursing residents with complex medical needs,” said Doggett following Monday’s announcement. “I will continue to work with the more than 100 colleagues who joined me in urging stronger requirements to deliver the very best care to our aging and disabled family members.”

Nancy LeaMond, Executive Vice President and Chief Advocacy and Engagement Officer for AARP, called the final rule “long-overdue” and added that it will help protect skilled nursing residents’ “basic rights.”

In her statement, LeaMond said in part, “It is shameful that nursing homes receiving taxpayer dollars through Medicaid and Medicare haven’t been required to provide quality care through specific minimum staffing standards until now. Far too many residents and families have experienced tragic consequences because of poorly staffed facilities.”

Texas failed to fully fund system flagging those who shouldn’t work with kids

On Megan Tabor’s wedding day to Kasey Calvery, there was no way to anticipate the pain her husband-to-be would cause. Nearly two decades later, they’re divorced — and he is at a state prison in Huntsville, Texas, convicted of sexually abusing a member of Tabor’s family.

The girl whom Calvery abused came forward years after the abuse ended, and when she did, Tabor said it was to stop him from hurting someone else.

“It hit too close to home. She couldn’t keep quiet anymore,” Tabor said.

Her courage and a court filing in what became a criminal case against Calvery for continuous sexual abuse brought to light a history of misconduct stretching far beyond their family. It highlighted systemic issues with how Texas vets people who work around children and how, over the years, attempts to close the loopholes in Texas have fallen short.

In February 2023, Lampasas prosecutors filed a two-page letter listing allegations against Calvery dating back to his time as a firefighter in Longview, Texas. Years before he began teaching, the court filing showed the city of Longview forced Calvery to resign after a fellow firefighter accused him of touching her breast.

At his next job as a paramedic in Copperas Cove, court and personnel records show he was fired after he admitted to inappropriately touching a patient in the back of an ambulance.

As a result, Texas Health and Human Services emergency suspended his license in 2008, and a local reporter even wrote an article on the incident in the paper. The City of Copperas Cove declined to comment further because it was a personnel matter. 

Despite his past, court records show he went on to work around children. First, at a residential facility in Goldthwaite for boys and girls with emotional and behavioral problems called New Horizons. HHSC inspection reports show that at one point, he was banned from physically restraining the children there for 60 days and put on a corrective action plan.

Calvery then went to work as a behavioral intervention teacher at Lampasas Independent School District in 2012, and then as a special education teacher at Copperas Cove Independent School District until 2018. He was a special education teacher and coach at Ector County Independent School District up until an Odessa High School student reported sexual abuse in 2020.  

A grand jury in Ector County decided not to indict Calvery based on the report at Odessa High School, but news of the decision was the catalyst for Tabor’s family member to go to police about her own abuse.

Calvery did not respond to the letter we sent him in prison, and his attorney did not provide a statement after several emails asking questions about his client.

Calvery’s work history underscores why, in recent years, Texas lawmakers have passed bills addressing the state’s issues with background checks that lead to bad actors gaining employment around vulnerable populations.

“Evil is always going to find a crack to try to slip through, and our job is to expose those cracks and then fix those cracks,” said Texas State Sen. Lois Kolkhorst, R-Brenham.

In 2023, on the heels of a backgrounding issue at a Bastrop residential facility for sex-trafficked teens, Kolkhorst’s Senate Bill 1849 sought to create one search engine that allowed access to do-not-hire databases from the Texas Education Agency, Juvenile Justice Department, Health and Human Services and the Department of Family Protective Services.

The state requires school districts and other facilities that care for children to run background checks on employees. These checks can produce criminal records but don’t clearly show state agency misconduct records and do-not-hire warnings. The search engine would allow employers access to one central repository to screen for red flags in a prospective employee’s history.

But despite the bill’s passing, the plan to create the search engine still has cracks. Disciplinary records on law enforcement officers kept by the Texas Commission on Law Enforcement are not set to be included. This means employers would potentially miss out on records showing whether a prospective employee is a former officer whose TCOLE license has been suspended or revoked over misconduct. The data would only be immediately available to schools or other police departments for hiring.

According to the agency, while HHSC’s Misconduct Registry will be accessible through the search engine, its licensing data will not. The licensing search was the only query that noted a disciplinary issue with Calvery until 2024. It showed the emergency suspension of Calvery’s EMT license in 2008 following the allegations that he inappropriately touched a patient.

“Yeah, that would be something that could be included, for sure,” Kolkhorst said. But it’s a fix she said will likely need to come from additional legislation.

“You’re kind of looking at, now, we’re going to spread 1849 out,” Kolkhorst said.

Although some of this data, including HHSC’s license search, is available online, many school districts and other employers in child settings limit their searches and reference checks to the work history provided by a job candidate. In the case of Calvery, Ector CISD officials said he left several of his previous work experiences off his resume, including his time at Longview Fire Department, Copperas Cove Fire Department and New Horizons.

That’s the main problem the search engine aims to fix by creating one central repository for employers to search a name and see results from multiple agencies’ misconduct records; even those the employer is not aware of would have records on the candidate.

KXAN found the legislation is also facing funding challenges. Officials with Texas Health and Human Services told KXAN that additional legislative resources during the next session would be necessary to implement SB 1849 and start using the search engine.

The Department of Information Resources, or DIR, is tasked with designing the search engine. Lawmakers appropriated $8 million in the last regular session for the project. Kolkhorst said the search engine is projected to cost between $17 million and $23 million.

“They said, ‘here’s the seed money […] because it won’t be accomplished if we put the full amount in upfront, you know, it’ll sit idle,’” Kolkhorst said. “I know that all of us have a commitment. I believe Senate Bill 1849 was unanimous, and it will be funded, and it will be fully funded and operational.”

The law requires DIR and all the participating state agencies to enter a memorandum of understanding, specifying each agency’s roles and duties in establishing and maintaining the database. However, nearly eight months after the bill became law, agency officials say they have not signed an agreement.

The memorandum is being drafted, but according to DIR officials, it will not be finalized until after the assessment and work plan are completed to determine each agency’s roles and responsibilities.

In April, Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick added SB 1849 to the list of issues he wants lawmakers to study and recommend improvements before the next legislative session.

Both Kolkhorst and Sen. Paul Bettencourt already vowed to file new legislation that adds school contractors to the list of school personnel that the Texas Education Agency can investigate. Problem contractors could then be added to the agency’s Do Not Hire list and subsequently to the anticipated search engine.

Education Commissioner Mike Morath highlighted his agency’s inability to compel school districts to report contractors for alleged misconduct in a letter to Bettencourt. He wrote it following KXAN’s investigation into a non-profit tutor who was able to get an assignment at an Austin Independent School District high school. Records show that, at the same time, TJJD was investigating him for sexual misconduct.

Kolkhorst said the search engine needs to be available to school districts immediately but added it will likely not be operational until fall 2025. HHSC officials said in hearings on SB 1849 that the search engine will be released in phases. In the first phase, the TEA, DFPS, HHSC, and TJJD will have access to the search engine. Access will be expanded in the second phase.  

Calvery is set to be in prison for 25 years, but while he is imprisoned, and likely still when he gets out, his name will be in the TEA’s Do Not Hire database. The agency added his name and revoked his teaching certificate after he was convicted in August.

Records of Calvery’s misconduct are scattered and fragmented across the state. Many documents reflecting Calvery’s work history have been purged from the city, school districts and facilities where he used to be employed because of the state laws dictating how long records must be stored.

Copperas Cove ISD officials said it purged district files on Calvery in September 2023, a month after providing his records to KXAN in a public information request. The district said the purge was due to the district’s retention schedule. In response to our follow-up questions about the personnel file we obtained and Calvery’s time at the district, officials said they could not respond because they no longer had the documents in their possession.

New Horizon officials said they no longer have records on Calvery and, therefore, can’t talk about him because of how long ago he worked there. The program administrator said the state only requires facilities to maintain records for a year after an employee’s last work date.

If not for his conviction, records on Calvery’s history would have likely faded out of the public record entirely, widening the blind spots for those entrusted with protecting the most vulnerable.

Initiative aims to boost mental health care in Uvalde and surrounding area

Gov. Greg Abbott announced on Monday a $34 million initiative aimed at bolstering mental health services in Uvalde.

Construction for a new behavioral health campus in Uvalde is expected to begin later this year, according to a press release from the governor’s office. The project aims to help children and adults grappling with mental health crises in Uvalde and across 32 counties in the surrounding area.

The proposed facility will include a 16-bed crisis unit for adults and a dedicated wing for youths, featuring a 16-bed crisis unit tailored for children and adolescents. The focus of the campus will be on crisis stabilization and providing round-the-clock support to individuals undergoing mental health emergencies. Additionally, the facility will serve as a designated 24/7 diversion center, welcoming walk-ins and individuals referred by law enforcement agencies.

“Our communities thrive when Texans feel safe and healthy, and the State of Texas remains steadfast in its efforts to broaden the reach of essential mental health resources,” Abbott said in a statement.

Former Uvalde mayor Don McLaughlin said the need for this facility long preceded the May 2022 mass shooting in their community, in which a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers. A House Committee investigative report on the shooting found the gunman had a history of mental health issues and missed warning signs.

“We have no help in rural Texas for it, not just in Uvalde but all over rural Texas,” he said. “Right now, if the county judges have someone that they have to deal with or seek to get help, or to be evaluated — we’ve had a drive away as far away as Texarkana, Texas to find the bed.”

McLaughlin said he has spent the last nine or so years advocating for more mental health resources in Uvalde or surrounding counties.

Dr. Bob Cuyler — the chief clinical officer of Freespira Inc. — applauded the state’s effort in building this center, stressing the importance of crisis intervention when it comes to preventing an indivudal from harming themselves or others.

“There’s sort of a magic moment where many times you can intervene rapidly and help stabilize a crisis so that it may not turn into a need for an extended hospitalization,” he said. “That’s not always the case. But it was an award winning and tremendous service for kind of a similar demographic in East Texas to the counties around Uvalde.”

Cuyler said his biggest concern for the project is finding adequate staffing for these facilities, suggesting a hybrid of in-person treatment and telehealth for certain types of care could help with staffing.

“It’s a lot easier to build buildings than it is to staff with mental health professionals. It is a real challenge to recruit mental health professionals to rural areas, I don’t know to what extent they may use, you know, telemedicine as part of their staffing solution,” he said.

The project is set to be operated by Hill Country Mental Health and Developmental Disabilities Centers under a contract with the Texas Health and Human Services Commission.

The City of Uvalde has allocated seven acres of land at U.S. 90 and King Fisher Lane to accommodate the campus, which will include two different buildings, spanning approximately 50,000 square feet.

During the 88th Legislative Session, Abbott signed House Bill 1 and Senate Bill 30 into law, earmarking $33.6 million for the construction of the Uvalde Behavioral Health Campus. An additional $5 million was allocated for the facility’s inaugural year of operation.

The new behavioral health campus is scheduled to open its doors in the summer of 2025.