KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — A new state bill would allow teachers to remove chronically disruptive students from classrooms. Governor Bill Lee is expected to sign it this week.
Sponsors said it would strengthen their authority to manage classrooms, but others worry it would target students of color or those with special needs.
Unruly students in the classroom are nothing new. Knox County Education Association president Tanya Coats said it's been a worsening problem for years.
"We have a number of kids and unbeknownst to their parents or guardians, they come to school and are unmanageable."
She said incidents can rise to the extremes.
"I've known educators to have arms and legs break in the school system, have had major surgery."
Currently Knox County Schools has a system in place, which includes a hearing and alternative measures for children to still be educated but through a different system.
Coats worries this bill would show more inequities.
"We already have a challenge when we have kids of color expelled or are let from school ten times more than their peers," she said. "We don't want inequities to really eliminate kids that need public education."
Instead, she said the focus should instead be on providing more resources for schools to fund more counselors.
"We have educators who are trying to figure out for me trying to teach kids what's best for them or my health and safety."
Anderson County teacher Scott Carver understands the pressure of having to make these decisions in the classroom.
"What we have to ask ourselves when we're in situations like that is 'has teaching stopped, has learning stopped because of the disruptive behavior of this student?"
Like KCS, he said his district has plans in place for disruptive situations and believes this legislation would rarely have to be used.
"This would be a worse case scenario by all means if we did have to go this direction," said Carver.
Federal law prevents removing students with disabilities from classrooms.
Several advocacy groups worry the legislation could remove those who haven't been identified as having a disability.