AUSTIN, Texas – A Texas lawmaker wants to make teachers immune from prosecution for using deadly force against students in self-defense.

Republican Texas state Rep. Dan Flynn introduced legislation to allow educators to use force, or deadly force, to protect themselves and school property from students or others, the Houston Chronicle reports.

The Teacher’s Protection Act specifically exempts educators from prosecution for “injury or death that results from the educator’s use of deadly force,” but the Association of Texas Professional Educators told the Chronicle teachers already have legal protections for the use of force in certain circumstances.

MORE NEWS: Know These Before Moving From Cyprus To The UK

ATPE lobbyist Monty Exter said the organization’s legal experts don’t believe the proposed bill would add any protections for teachers that are not already afforded to all state residents who claim self-defense.

“We understand he’s trying to carve out some liability protections,” Exter told the Chronicle. “But, we can’t see that the liability protection in that particular bill is any different than the protection that exists in law for a regular citizen.”

ATPE managing attorney told the Chronicle “educators in Texas actually do have some legal protections that do allow them to use physical force to protect themselves and protect others, as long as the use of physical force is reasonable.”

Houston Federation of Teachers president Gayle Fallon also believes the bill is unnecessary, calling it “the most absurd piece of legislation I have ever seen come up,” The Vine reports.

Think Progress is arguing the legislation is a race issue, and said it could have “disastrous consequences” for black, Latino and other minority students.

“Such a bill could have disastrous consequences for students of color,” according to the Think Progress story “Bill Would Allow Texas Teachers To Kill Students.”

MORE NEWS: How to prepare for face-to-face classes

“A coalition of civil rights organizations found that black and Latino students face much higher rates of disciplinary action in schools, which exacerbates the so-called school-to-prison pipeline,” Think Progress opines.

“By extension, if students of color are already disproportionately targeted by school authorities for their behavior, they could also become targets of deadly force used by educators.”

Think Progress and The Vine make the case against the law by citing “experts” like Marjorie Sanfiippo and others who oppose concealed guns in schools, and dredging up memories of the Sandy Hook massacre in 2012.

But what they don’t discuss is the very real physical danger teachers face from students in the classroom every day.

As the Chronicle points out, Flynn’s proposed law was introduced just days before a video of a New Jersey physics teacher being body slammed by an ninth grade student went viral.

In the video, it’s clear the teacher tries not to engage the student, and doesn’t fight back.

The student slammed the 62-year-old teacher to the ground at John F. Kennedy High School in Paterson, New Jersey because the teacher took away the student’s cell phone.

The 16-year-old student was eventually arrested, charged with assault, and suspended from school, the Huffington Post reports.