Man arrested for attacking teen during anti-ICE protest at school
A Texas man was arrested after violently attacking a teenager during a protest against President Donald Trump's immigration crackdown.
Police determined that 45-year-old Chad Michael Watts was the primary aggressor during a fight with the minor teen as hundreds of students from Hays Consolidated Independent School District in Kyle walked out of class Monday to protest Trump's mass deportation campaign, reported KEYE-TV.
"I was like, are they jumping this guy at first?” said Kim, whose child attends Moe and Gene Johnson High School. “Then I realized, oh, wow, he’s an adult that actually probably started getting violent.”
The fight was caught on video that circulated on social media showing Watts outside his pickup truck physically confronting a student.
“A full-grown adult on a young high school girl is a lot of power to overthrow, and so it took enough people around finally to get him off of her, and ultimately he went back into his truck and took off,” said Hays County Judge Ruben Becerra.
KEYE reached out to Gov. Greg Abbott's office for comment and staffers directed reporters to a social media post he made about another walkout in Kyle where two students were arrested.
“Disruptive walkouts allowed by schools lead to just this kind of chaos," the governor posted. "Schools and staff who allow this behavior should be treated as co-conspirators and should not be immune to criminal behavior.”
The Texas Education Agency issued guidance this week noting that students must be marked absent during walkout protests and schools risk the loss of daily attendance funding for allowing or encouraging such demonstrations, but state Rep. Erin Zwiener defended their actions and justified their motives.
“We know we have students in our schools who have had family members disappear," Zwiener said. "Of course, they are engaged. Of course, they’re trying to protect their community."
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