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Safety Law News for 11/27/12

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  • California educators are implementing random, mandatory drug tests for about 15 percent of student athletes in their school district, after suspending “an unexpectedly high number” of student athletes for drug and alcohol use.
  • An app for SROs: students and parents can discretely contact the SROs in Maryland. There are numerous commercial apps for purchase, according to Kevin Quinn, president of the National Association of School Resource Officers, but Maryland police spent about $600 creating their own.
  • Anti-drug officials in Illinois are turning to students for help. The county developed a nationwide model for combating drugs, but is still seeing deadly student overdoses. “We need help. We need partners. Young people are not going to listen to an old guy in a suit standing up here talking,” a state attorney said.
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Safety Law News for 11/15/12

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  • A Memphis high school newspaper describes a gang awareness assembly that resonated with students, despite their initial apathy toward the speaker.
  • A high school principal in Massachusetts, who is often asked how parents should be involved in their children’s lives, writes about effective parental involvement.
  • Under state law, Ohio’s Department of Education currently tracks almost 1.9 million students without names, addresses, or Social Security numbers. Some policymakers are urging a legal change that would grant the state access to this juvenile information.
  • Maryland educators are questioning the effectiveness of an alcohol policy, which allows schools to discipline student athletes for off-campus drinking.
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Safety Law News for 11/12/12

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  • Relationships with students are the priority: an open letter from the superintendent of Stillwater Public Schools in Oklahoma, where an eighth grade student died from a self-inflicted gun wound at school on September 26.
  • Many Texas teachers are cutting back on mentoring and reducing after school communications with students, as an increasing number of teachers is investigated for inappropriate conduct with students.
  • A New Hampshire student is appealing her school’s dress code ban on sleeveless attire—and, while the dress code appears to enjoy wide support, the superintendent was so impressed with the student’s presentation that he asked the school board to reconsider its policy.
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Safety Law News for 10/31/12

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  • When an off-campus Facebook dispute led to an on-campus knife confrontation, educators handled the incident like they would any knife threat on campus.
  • Rather than ruling on a high profile strip search case, the North Carolina Supreme Court has returned the case to a lower court. The justices say that more facts are necessary to decide the case, including an understanding of who witnessed the search.
  • Students in New York City are paying for cell phone valets—van-based services that watch their phones for the day—rather than handing their phones over to their schools.