Safety Law News for 7/24/12

  • After two student suicides, Florida educators say that they stop bullying in its earliest stages, while families suggest that the schools are actually rife with peer-on-peer harassment.
  • A 17-year-old student says in a formal letter that the day before canine drug searches occur, teachers warn students that the searches are coming. The school may be drug free “on paper,” he says, but the real drug availability is “unbelievable.”
  • Tattoos and body piercings may soon be the norm in a Nebraska school district, where the school board is preparing to vote on tattoos and piercings that do not pose “a distraction to the educational process.” It may also permit personal computers, iPads, and cell phones at school, if students use them for instructional purposes.
  • School uniforms will not be required in a Massachusetts school, so educators will instead enforce a stricter dress code. Clothing loans—and clothing for sale in the bookstore—will help violators return to class quickly.

Safety Law News for 7/20/12

  • Still illegal: marijuana incidents hold about steady in Indiana, but SROs and judges say that families are more accepting of the drug—and that marijuana abuse is increasingly an intergenerational affair.
  • Early introduction: middle school students chose a name for Jaxx the German Shepherd puppy—and, once he is trained, their new canine friend will become part of the law enforcement team at their Connecticut school.

Safety Law News for 7/9/12

  • School administrators and a bus driver apparently failed to enforce an anti-bullying law, which would have better protected a fifteen-year-old bullying victim. While facts are dispute, this much is clear: on a day when this student was sexually harassed on the school bus, he finished his homework and then committed suicide.

Safety Law News for 7/6/12

  • Massachusetts educators adopted—and then quickly abandoned—voluntary student drug tests. Under the policy, when students were suspected of using drugs, they could choose to accept an oral swab test.
  • A small, poverty-filled school district is changing its students by adding behavioral mentorship to its school safety disciplinary measures.