6 June 26 - July 2, 2025 dallasobserver.com DALLAS OBSERVER Classified | MusiC | dish | Culture | unfair Park | Contents compensation and retention as one of its pri- orities. The district cited a lack of proper state funding as the source of an inability to provide teacher raises that keep up with the inflation rate. In the last 10 years, the average Dallas ISD teacher’s salary increased by $17,121. This school year, teachers will see a few extra thousand dollars in their paycheck, but the average teacher salary in the city and state will still fall far below the na- tional average. “Because no new significant dollars have been provided to public education in Texas during the last five years, Dallas ISD has only been able to provide 2% cost-of- living increases to teachers during each of the last 2 years,” reads the priority an- nouncement from Dallas ISD. “Funding is needed to help educators keep up with the rising cost of inflation.” Bolstering teacher pay was also a key ef- fort of Gov. Greg Abbott, who boasted about signing House Bill 2. The bill, which is not fully endorsed by educator associations, al- locates $4 billion to teacher pay raises across the state. The funds go directly to the exist- ing Teacher Incentive Allotment, which is a pyramid-structure pay-raise system based on teacher tenure and standardized testing scores. Through the revamped Teacher Incen- tive Allotment, teachers with 3-4 years of experience in districts with 5,000 or fewer students will get a $4,000 raise, and those with 5 or more years of experience will get $8,000. For larger districts, teachers with 3 to 4 years of experience will get a $2,500 raise, and those with five or more years of experience will get a $5,000 raise. This means urban teachers, like those in Dallas ISD, will benefit the least from the pro- gram, but can still expect a small pay bump. “Now is the time to make Texas No. 1 in educating our children,” said Abbott in a press release applauding the bill. “House Bill 2 ensures that our schools are funded better than ever, teacher pay and student funding are at all-time highs, reading and math performance will improve, and stu- dents will be better prepared for the work- force. The foundation is now in place for Texas education to start climbing the ranks.” Teacher associations say that the legis- lative pay raise is a long time coming, but still falls short of catching Texas teachers up to the national average. According to records from the Texas Education Agency, the average teacher in Texas makes $63,749, about $9,000 behind the national average. At the end of the 2024-2025 school year, the average teacher in Dallas made $70,343, about $2,000 less than the national average in the city with the high- est cost of living in the state. In the 2014-2015 school year, the aver- age teacher in Dallas ISD made $53,222. In the 2019-2020 school year, teachers made an average of $60,146. While teacher salaries are steadily increasing, the district continues to work to raise them even further. In May, the Dallas ISD board of trustees approved a budget that set the starting teacher pay at $64,000. “The increases in salaries for all team members amount to $35.9 million in the 2025-2026 budget and focus on the dis- trict’s compensation priorities: market competitive salaries, Dallas ISD’s commit- ment to a living wage, strategic compensa- tion, and stipends for service at identified District Support Initiative campuses,” read a press release from the district an- nouncing the new budget with increased pay. ▼ IMMIGRATION AMERICAN NIGHTMARE THOUSANDS SIGNAL SUPPORT FOR NORTH TEXAS BRIDE HELD IN ICE DETENTION CENTER. BY EMMA RUBY O ver 3,000 people have signed a peti- tion that urges Dallas Congress- woman Jasmine Crockett to step in and prevent the deportation of a Dallas- based wedding photographer who has been in custody of U.S. Customs and Border Pro- tection officials since returning from her honeymoon in February. Ward Sakeik, a 22-year-old Palestinian- American who recently graduated from the University of Texas at Arlington, was de- tained when she flew into Miami from the U.S. Virgin Islands. Over the last five months, she has been moved between immigration detention centers. Recently, ICE notified Sakeik’s legal counsel that she would soon be deported, the Council on American-Islamic Relations (CAIR-DFW) said. Sakeik’s whereabouts were unknown last recently when CAIR hosted an emergency press conference to bring attention to her case. Her husband, 28-year-old Taahir Shaikh, said he had been unable to speak with Sakeik for two days. A statement pro- vided to the Observer from Crockett said Sakeik is being held at a detention center in Alvarado, Texas. “My office is fully aware of the situation involving Mrs. Ward Sakeik and her current detainment at the Prairieland Detention Center,” Crockett said. “We have been in di- rect contact with her family and continue to engage with the appropriate federal agen- cies as we work toward a just and humane resolution.” The petition urges Crockett to denounce Sakeik’s detainment and to seek a temporary restraining order on the deportation order to allow her case to be reviewed. Crockett has been an outspoken critic of the immigra- tion policies of President Donald Trump’s administration, which she described as “cruel and unnecessary.” She told the Observer she is “commit- ted” to advocating for Sakeik and others af- fected by Trump’s mass immigration mandate. “The continued use of government au- thority to target and separate families is not only unjust, it is deeply disturbing,” Crockett said. “This administration’s willingness to weaponize immigration enforcement to in- still fear and cause harm to our communities is unacceptable, and we will not stand by si- lently.” While Trump has called for a ramp-up in deportations, it isn’t clear where Sakeik would be deported. She has lived in the United States since she was 8 years old, and though she was born in Saudi Arabia to refugee parents of Palestinian descent, she does not have citizenship in either country. According to CAIR, Sakeik’s husband, Shaikh, is a U.S. citizen, and she has a pend- ing green card application. Shaikh told re- porters last week that Sakeik has attended every immigration “check-in” appointment she’s been required to. “It’s just simply inhumane and shameful that a person who has followed every rule laid out by our government should be de- ported, especially a bride separated from her husband for simply taking a honeymoon,” CAIR-DFW Executive Director Mustafaa Carroll told reporters. “This is the only country she’s known; she has not been raised in any other country.” While the detainment of some Palestin- ian and Palestinian-American activists by immigration officials has raised concerns of targeting, Shaikh said his wife has not been publicly involved in the issue. In March, ICE agents detained Leqaa Kordia, a Palestinian woman involved in student protests at Columbia University in New York, who was transported to Prairieland Detention Center, where she remains along with Sakeik. CAIR-DFW could not be reached for comment on any updates in Sakeik’s case. “Why do I deserve to keep going on with my life when I see what my wife is going through for 120 days,” Shaikh said.”[Now she’s] boarding a plane to who knows where after this country showed her every aspect of the American dream.” ▼ POLICE UNDER THE INFLUENCE MORE DPD OFFICERS ARRESTED FOR INTOXICATION OFFENSES. BY ALYSSA FIELDS T he Dallas Police Department re- cently placed three patrol officers on administrative leave in one week after all three were separately arrested for alcohol-related misdemeanor crimes: driving while intoxicated and public in- toxication. The first officer, a patrolman with the Central Patrol Division, was ar- rested on June 10, the second, a patrolman with the Northeast Division, was arrested on June 11 and the third, an officer within the Unmanned Air Support Unit, was ar- rested on June 14. Six officers have been arrested this calendar year for similar of- fenses. This isn’t anything new for Dallas police. Alcohol abuse within the department was handled head-on in 2021 after several officers were terminated for alcohol-related issues, an internal review found that officers felt the existing resources were not helpful, and so they weren’t used. In February 2022, under the guidance of former Chief Eddie Garcia, the department introduced a new unit, the Officer Wellness Longevity Unit, or OWL. The unit is dedicated to offering men- tal health services and resources to officers, particularly for PTSD and substance use dis- order. “Thirty years ago, it wasn’t a popular thing for departments to say, ‘If you have some issues on this job, come forward — good, bad or indifferent,’” Garcia said about the new unit. “It was always, ‘You know what? You just need to suck it up and move on.’ And that way of thinking has to change.” But that same year, 2022, six DPD offi- cers were arrested by September for intoxi- cation-related offenses, including public intoxication and driving while intoxicated, according to The Dallas Morning News. Gar- cia rolled out another program to encourage officers grappling with addiction to take the needed time to rehabilitate. The program, which still exists today, allows officers to take 30 days of paid leave to attend a rehabil- itation program if they seek help before an arrest or policy violation. “The concern for alcohol-related issues is real to me,” Garcia said to the Morning News in 2022. “It damages our officers’ personal and professional lives.” But even with OWL and the 30-day paid leave program, officer intoxication arrests remain unchanged. Perhaps that will shift under the new chief. “Chief [Daniel] Comeaux has made offi- cer wellness a priority because it affects not only the officer or employee, but their co- workers, those they interact with in public, and their families,” said a Dallas police spokesperson. “Chief Comeaux and the command staff continue to push these re- sources because they work.” Substance use disorder, particularly that of alcohol, among public safety officers has been long studied and is recognized as an in- dustry-wide issue. The high correlation be- tween the line of duty and substance use is commonly linked to the high-stress nature of first-responder duties. Unfair Park from p4 Sakeik graduated from the University of Texas at Arlington. CAIR-DFW >> p8
