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Safety Law News for 4/22/13

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• More than 200 teachers from Pinellas County, Florida have expressed interest in a free class to learn about carrying a concealed weapon.

• The town of Little Ferry, New Jersey, volunteered to reassign school resource officers to the school district free of charge.  The officers were taken away from the schools in 2009 in the wake of budget cuts.

•  Limestone County, Alabama will begin hiring retired peace officers for duty at elementary schools.  The 12 retired officers will work part-time and share duties at the county’s feeder schools.

•  Indiana legislature considering radical school safety policy that would require an employee in every public or charter school to carry a loaded gun during school hours.

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Safety Law News for 4/16/13

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•  The Mississippi legislature is considering Senate Bill 2659 which would provide funding for School Resource Officers. The House inserted language into the bill to allow local school boards to develop safety policies to arm teachers and other school employees.

•  North Carolina lawmakers have unveiled bipartisan school safety legislation designed to add more law enforcement officers in elementary and middle schools, more school psychologists and social workers, and install panic alarms in every classroom.

• The Des Moines, Iowa newspaper publishes, then deletes a map of guarded and unguarded schools.

•  The Missouri House of Representatives has two competing school safety proposals. House Bill 70 would allow any teacher or school administrator to possess firearms on school grounds.  House Bill 276, would create a volunteer “school protection officer” program.

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Safety Law News for 4/10/13

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• NC legislative committee approves school safety bill that sets aside $30 million over two years for matching grants so local school districts can hire more school police officers, counselors and psychologists.

• In the details of a survey of Iowa schools, only 16% of the public school districts (54 out of 348) have a police officer or private security guard stationed at one or more of their schools.

• Des Moines, Iowa Police Chief Judy Bradshaw believes that students, staff and parents know that school resource officers help resolve conflicts before they escalate. SROs also help build positive relationships between students and the police force.

• North Carolina’s legislature has introduced H452, a bill that provides funding for local school districts to add School Resource Officers (SROs) and support staff, including school counselors, social workers and psychologists. The bill also requires school districts to take specific steps to respond effectively to a future crisis.

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Safety Law News for 4/8/13

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  •  The Ohio legislature is considering Senate Bill 42, which will amend the existing law to allow school districts to ask for property tax levies specifically to pay for safety and security.
  • The family of a Martinsburg, West Virginia, high school freshman who nearly died after his heart stopped during an ROTC class is crediting the school’s resource officer and nurse with helping save the young teen’s life.
  • The North Brunswick, New Jersey Board of Education has decided to hire retired police officers, one for each of the township’s six schools.

 

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Safety Law News for 4/3/13

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• 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.

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Safety Law News for 4/1/13

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• A bill that increases the role of school resource officers in Colorado schools was unanimously approved by the state Senate.

•  Two counties in Alabama seek to amend the Alabama constitution to create funding to pay the costs of providing a school resource officer.

•  Officials from Newtown, Connecticut, will provide a keynote address at the National Association of School Resource Officers’ (NASRO) 23rd annual School Safety Conference, July 14 -19, 2013, in Orlando, to discuss the response to and recovery from the December school shooting tragedy at Sandy Hook Elementary School.

• The Oklahoma House of Representatives has approved a bill that would allow certified volunteers to act as reserve school resource officers.

•  Northern Ohio communities and educators are seeing the benefits of school resource officers.