Safety Law News for 4/3/13

• Arizona Senate approved legislation allowing designated teachers, administrators or other employees in rural schools to carry a handgun.  The policy applies only to rural schools that have 600 students or fewer, are at least 20 miles and 30 minutes from the nearest police station, and lack a school resource officer.

• A new study reveals that the relationships SROs form with administrators, teachers, and students play an important role in their arrest decisions. The SROs in the study reported that they previously decided against making arrests despite evidence of criminal conduct. Moreover, they indicated that this decision occurred on numerous occasions and in differing circumstances.  77% of SROs indicated that they had previously refrained from arresting students because the students had never been in trouble before and 55% of respondents indicated that they had not arrested students after a fight because the students demonstrated that the fight was over.

• Maryland SRO suspended with pay and put on routine administrative leave after putting a camera in boys’ bathroom at a High School.

• Milford, Connecticut, plans to expand its school safety program by paying for SROs using the revenue generated from parking fines, permit fees and the sale of documents.