Texas Bill Could Ban Athletes Who Assault Referees

New legislation has been introduced in the state of Texas to punish any students who assault referees during school events.

The bill was introduced on Monday by Eddie Lucio, TX-27 state senator, according to a report from EverthingLubbock.com.

If passed, the bill will prohibit any student found to have assaulted a referee at a University Interscholastic League (UIL) event to be permanently banned from participating in that event, EverythingLubbock.com reported.

The full name of the act is “relating to prohibiting a student from participating in future extracurricular activities for certain conduct involving the assault of an extracurricular activity official.”

The inspiration for this act stems from a December incident where an Edinburg High School football player assaulted a referee during a high school football game.

The football player involved in the incident, Emmanuel Duron, was indefinitely suspended from UIL events by the sanctioning body. Additionally, Edinburg High School was given a two-year probation on UIL events.

“Our district’s leadership agrees with the committee also that such incidents are not acceptable and will not be tolerated. Moving forward, our district is committed to developing and implementing a plan of action to proactively deter any future misconduct by any future student-athlete,” Edinburg CISD interim superintendent Gilbert Garza previously said.