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Safety Law News for November 20, 2023

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— In New York, the New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division affirmed the refusal of the trial court to dismiss a case in which a high school student committed suicide “a few days after the conclusion of his sophomore year of high school.”  Educators argued that, “they owed no duty to decedent because his suicide occurred off school premises and during summer vacation.” Both the trial court and the appellate court agreed that “tortfeasors may be held liable for the suicide of (a) person who, as the result of (the tortfeasors’) negligence, suffer(s) mental disturbance destroying the will to survive.”   The appellate court further stated that, “the duty that is relevant in this case is the duty of a school to provide its students with adequate supervision” while they are in the school’s physical custody and control.”  Educators “failed to eliminate triable issues of fact whether they breached their duty to provide adequate supervision.”  In particular, the Principal “acknowledged during his deposition that (the student) had reported to him on more than one occasion” (the student’s) experience with bullying.  Therefore, a jury would determine “whether the school’s negligence in failing to adequately address and safeguard against harassment and bullying directed at decedent at school caused decedent to suffer mental disturbance destroying his will to survive.”  Keri Spring v. Allegany-Limestone Central School District.

— In Tennessee, state officials and the Governor are considering expanding the budget for public education in order to provide mental health professionals in every school.  The Behavioral Health Liaisons would “serve as mental health professionals who can do everything from educating students about resources to doing direct interventions.”

— In North Carolina, officials in the Iredell County Sheriff’s Office are expanding the canine component of their school safety program by adding “a 2-year old English Labrador retriever, as the fifth canine in the school system.”  The canines all have “training that include(s) advanced obedience, building searches, tracking, article detection, narcotics detection and emotional support.” 

— In New Jersey, voters in Matawan-Aberdeen in Monmouth County and River Vale in Bergen County voted down a referendum “to add additional security to schools.”  Voters in Hillsborough in Somerset County and the School District of the Chathams in Morris County approved the proposals.  School districts all over the state of New Jersey submitted to their communities varying proposals to assist their efforts to maintain safe campuses.

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Safety Law News for November 17, 2023

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— In Tennessee, the United States Court of Appeals ruled that a school is liable under Title IX for its deliberate indifference to threats made against a student after receiving notice from the family.  This affirmed the result of a trial arising out of student-on-student harassment that the student suffered before and after her sexual assault.  The appellate court held that where the harasser is under the school’s disciplinary authority it will be liable for deliberate indifference.  The student successfully showed that (1) the school maintained policy of deliberate indifference to reports of sexual misconduct, (2) the indifference created heightened risk of sexual harassment that was known or obvious, (3) the risk of harassment was in context subject to school’s control, and (4) as result, the student suffered harassment “that was so severe, pervasive, and objectively offensive that it can be said to have deprived plaintiff of access to educational opportunities or benefits provided by school.”  The verdict was upheld because, the educators “were both aware of the continuing and severe threats made against (the student) and their disruption to her education.  …[T]he school did nothing in response to the bullying and threats against (the student) beyond directing her to the police.”  S.C. v. Metropolitan Government of Nashville

— In Florida, Duval County Public Schools records reveal that 510 fights occurred in the 2022-2023 school year on campus or on buses. The district recorded 58 such fights last school year at 14 schools.  When compared data from the first 60 days of the 2023-2024 school year the district is on track to see roughly the same number of fights by the end of the year.

— In Michigan, “Michigan State University education experts partnered with the Michigan State Police Office of School Safety to develop a series of six asynchronous courses to improve school safety. The courses are designed for school resource officers and other school officials to use to promote school safety and address mental health.”

— The U.S. Department of Education reports show that during the 2020-2021 school year there were nearly 3,500 referrals to law enforcement and more than 100 arrests of elementary school students.  The referrals data represents incidents in which a student is reported to police but not arrested. There were about 29.35 million students enrolled in public elementary schools in 2022.  Therefore, referrals would be approximately 0.01206 percent of all elementary students.  Arrests would be approximately 0.0003448 percent of all elementary students.  According to the data, there were a total of 93 school shootings with casualties at public and private elementary and secondary schools in 2020–21—the highest number since 2000–01.  “The year 2020–21 was the first since data collection began in which fewer than half of schools that had shootings were high schools.”

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Safety Law News for November 16, 2023

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— In New York, the New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division ruled that schools can be liable when they fail to provide “an appropriate level of supervision.”  This ruling reversed the lower court that dismissed the lawsuit of a student who was injured when “the tip of his left ring finger was closed in a metal door…for approximately three minutes.”  A student lunch monitor, responsible for the opening and closing of the door, was unaware of the injury until “other students banged on the door for approximately three minutes before the student lunch monitor opened the door. At that point, the tip of the infant plaintiff’s finger was severed.”  The appellate court held that “(s)chools are under a duty to adequately supervise the students in their charge and they will be held liable for foreseeable injuries proximately related to the absence of adequate supervision.”  The appellate court noted that, “(a)lthough there are certain accidents that occur in such a short span of time that even the most intense supervision could not have prevented them and any lack of supervision is not the proximate cause of the injury… this is not one of those cases.”  The case could not be dismissed because the schools own statements, “demonstrated that there was no adult monitoring the area where the accident took place and that, at the time of the accident, an assistant principal in the cafeteria was in the midst of calling for more assistance.”  Fleming v. City of New York.

— In Utah, policymakers are considering legislation that would require “(e)ach public, private and charter school …to have at least one of the following: a school resource officer, a contracted armed security guard or a volunteer school guardian.”  The proposal is part of “a list of recommendations …(to) prevent school shootings and protect students if one does occur.”

— In Minnesota “(t)he mayor of Windom and the city council sent a strong letter to the Red Rock Ridge alternative school in town recently saying that they do not believe that the school’s decision to remove the SRO is a wise one.”  Alternative schools exist to provide educational services to students who are sent there for offenses involving drugs, alcohol, weapons, violence, or order of the court.  Apparently, the decision to remove the police was “because of legal advice.”

— In Alabama, the Calera City Council is implementing the Calera Accountability and Success through Education (CASE) program in response to “growing issues surrounding youth vaping.”  The program seeks to educate students on the dangers of a great number of concerning behaviors including “illegal drug use, bullying, sexting and sex-exhortation.”

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Safety Law News for November 3, 2023

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— In Oregon, the Court of Appeals of Oregon ruled that Oregon law required the reversal of dismissed claims brought by paraeducators who worked in special education classrooms within the Portland Public Schools.  The paraeducators claimed that, “they repeatedly and regularly were subjected to physical assaults, and in some instances sexual assaults, by students, but, despite complaints and entreaties… (that school officials) failed to correct or ameliorate their working conditions.”  The appellate court ruled that the trial court erred when it dismissed claims for battery, hostile work environment and disability discrimination.  “(The) public school district was directly liable for alleged batteries committed by students, where allegations included that district knew that students were physically aggressive or violent and committing battery against paraeducators… had authority… but failed to take any corrective action.”  The work environment could be found to be hostile at trial because (the), “abuse was offensive and interfered with paraeducators’ work, safety, and wellbeing, (and) that…paraeducators (were a) protected class, specifically that they were female.”  The failure of the school officials to take appropriate action “was outside scope of their employment… precluding substitution of (the school) district as sole defendant.”  Moore v. Portland Public Schools.

— In South Dakota, the superintendent for the Rapid City Area Schools says that “more safety measures in Rapid City schools would be forthcoming.  Specifically, a gun incident, in which a deployed police officer “made the call…did the body search and found the weapon,” will provide the emphasis for a change in policy.  The new policy will seek funding to add weapon detection equipment in the schools.

— In Colorado, officials in the Douglas County School District are adding therapy dogs to the school safety team.  After receiving a multi discipline therapy K-9 certification, the new policy will partner therapy dogs with school resource officers.  Training will be provided “on ways to provide emotional support.”

— In Michigan, “(m)issteps and failures by Oxford Community School’s former superintendent and two former members of his cabinet snowballed to allow the Oxford High School shooter to slip through the school’s threat assessment and suicide intervention systems and carry out Michigan’s worst school shooting, according to a 572-page report” issued by a team of investigators from Guidepost Solutions.

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Safety Law News for October 27, 2023

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— In California, the California Court of Appeal denied immunity to a school district for injuries to a student who made her way to school by other means when the school bus “had not arrived for 40 minutes after the scheduled time.”  The student “got picked up from the bus stop by a friend whom she had texted. During their ride to school, the friend’s car was hit head on by another driver, causing (the student) to suffer fatal injuries.”  The court reversed the dismissal of the lawsuit by the trial court.  First, although California law declares schools are immune when students are not on school property (Cal. Educ. Code § 44808), “once a school district undertakes to provide transportation for its pupils, it has a duty to exercise reasonable care under the circumstances.”  The appellate court ruled that this exception to the off-campus immunity statute requires reversal, allowing the case to go forward.  Brinsmead v. Elk Grove Unified School District

— In Georgia, the Lieutenant Governor is proposing paying teachers “who hold a firearms training certificate an annual stipend.”  He wants to pay teachers $10,000 a year to encourage them to carry guns in schools.

— In Pennsylvania, the Senate Education Committee approved legislation that would mandate a “trained, armed school police, school resource or school security officer to be in every school building during school hours.” A state-wide poll “found 69 percent of voters favor requiring school districts to put an armed officer in every school. Additionally, 73 percent say they believe it would make schools safer.”

— In Colorado, the MOU between the Denver schools and the police department “outlines what the officers should and should not do.”  As one of the conditions for the officers returning to the schools, the agreement specifies that “officers should differentiate between disciplinary issues and crime problems and respond appropriately, and should not store guns inside schools.”

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Safety Law News for October 24, 2023

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— In Pennsylvania the United States District Court ruled that the provisions of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (“IDEA”) were not violated by keeping a student in an interim alternative education setting beyond the forty-five (45) day limit without a hearing.  The special needs student “brought a three-inch pocketknife to school and was displaying the knife to other students.”  A manifestation determination meeting ruled that it was not a manifestation of his disability nor “caused by the Local Educational Agency’s (LEA’s) failure to implement the IEP.”  Educators placed the student in an “interim alternative educational setting for forty-five (45) days due to the weapons violation,” and later agreed with his grandparents to delay his “return to the District high school (until) the beginning of the second marking period, thereby extending the 45-day placement.”  Soon thereafter, the student sent an email threatening to “ shoot up the school and die” and killed a named school official.  The manifestation determination again ruled that this incident was not a manifestation of his disability.  The student was expelled for the school year.  The Administrative Hearing Officer concluded that the District had not denied the student his IDEA rights.  On appeal, the court ruled that, “review of a hearing officer’s decision in an IDEA case is subject to a unique standard of review…(in which) findings of fact … are to be considered prima facie correct…and no deference is given to the hearing officer’s legal holdings.”  The court ruled that ‘the determination of whether a change in a child’s educational routine is a “change in placement” is a fact-specific one.”  Therefore, “based on the evidence, a reasonable fact finder could not conclude that the extension of the interim placement constituted a “change in placement.”  Jordan L. v. East Stroudsburg Area School District

— In Indiana, the Governor approved The Secured School Safety Grant a nearly $30 million grant to enhance Indiana school security.  The funding is “allocated in various categories, two-thirds of which went to increasing the number of school resources and law enforcement officers within local school systems.”

— In Kentucky, the Kentucky School Security Marshal says schools fall short in providing both resource officers, and mental health counselors.  The Task Force on School and Campus Safety found that “the main culprits for not having assigned SRO, majority of course was funding and personnel.”

— In Arizona, the Superintendent of Public Instruction is entering into an agreement with private a company to address staffing shortages that is making filling school resource officer positions difficult. Arizona law provides millions of dollars in grants for schools to hire school resource officers, as well as counselors and social workers.  As to officers, “when they went to hire someone, they found out that the police departments couldn’t spare enough people to fill those positions.”