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Safety Law News for June 12, 2023

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–  In New York, the Supreme Court, Appellate Division affirmed the dismissal of a lawsuit brought by former students of a former teacher who sexually abused them over a period of years.  The teacher took only male students with him on fishing trips and teacher was seen driving in his car only with male students. The court ruled that the school district did not know nor should it have known of former teacher’s propensity to sexually abuse children.  Educators deemed him to have an excellent reputation and did not have any complaints about his behavior.  He received positive reviews from other school districts as part of his employment application.  And many teachers interacted with students outside of school because of the small community.  No rumors about the teacher involved instances of sexual abuse.  Dolgas v. Wales

— In Florida, the former Parkland High School principal calls for mental health wellness centers in every school.  Five years after the shooting at his former school, the administrator says that, “(t)hat’s just the state that we’re in and we need to keep tabs on what’s happening with our youth to make sure that if there are problems, we can catch them early.”

— In Oklahoma, the Governor signed Senate Bill 100, which will require each school district to undergo a risk and vulnerability assessment by the Oklahoma School Security Institute.  The new law goes into effect July 1.  Legislators found that, “we need to create a uniform system of safety standards and protocols to ensure all our students and staff are fully protected.”

— In Ohio, officers for the West Chester Township Police Department are training students in the school district on self-defense tactics.  The defensive tactics class has been taught to high schoolers for the past 10 years.  Police said students are put in some of the most uncomfortable situations in hopes they’ll be able to carry it with them far beyond high school.

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Safety Law News for June 2, 2023

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–  In Missouri, the Missouri Court of Appeals rejected a First Amendment defense by a student who told his middle school classmates that he would shoot up girls’ basketball game, “cut the cameras,” and “kill people.”  In affirming the adjudication of the student for making terrorist threats, the appellate court ruled that the protections afforded speech by the First Amendment are not absolute.  ““True threats” – statements where a speaker means to communicate a serious expression of intent to commit act of unlawful violence to particular individual or group of individuals – are unprotected under the First Amendment.”  The court held that even if the student intended his remarks to be a joke, the crime is proven when the statement places others in fear that the threat will be carried out.  More than one classmate believed the threat and reported it to school officials.  D.J.T.S. v. Juvenile Officer, 665 S.W.3d 408 (Mo. Ct. App. 2023)

— In Ohio, officials from the Danville schools are collaborating with the Danville Police Department and the Ohio Dept. of Public Safety and Dept. of Public Education to provide instruction for students school safety.  Students in grades nine through 12 are required to take a special curriculum crafted by the state’s Dept. of Public Safety and Dept. of Public Education.  Elementary students receive the Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) program as well as Internet online safety.

— In Michigan, state officials and the University of Michigan are launching the Michigan School Safety Initiative.  The statewide initiative, designed to enhance school safety and prevent school violence, will provide training and assistance to local schools regarding evidence-based best practices.  “State support will allow U-M teams to conduct a comprehensive needs assessment of Michigan schools, evaluate the effectiveness of existing school safety actions and convene a Michigan-specific school safety advisory board.”

— In Ohio, school safety is one of the top three crime concerns for residents in Kettering.  A survey taken by the Kettering Police Department revealed that protecting children in schools was one of the three crimes residents worry most about, trailing only burglary and drug problems.

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Safety Law News for May 30, 2023

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–  In New Jersey, the United States District Court dismissed the lawsuit of a student who, “continued to go to school without a clear backpack” in violation of school policy.  In upholding the school policy, the court stated that the preference of the student to carry his own canvas backpack, “is not in and of itself protected,” and that the decision of school officials to enforce its policy, seizing and searching his backpack with each violation, was not a violation of any federal or state rights. Quoting from the U.S. Supreme Court case of New Jersey v. T.L.O., the court ruled that, “(t)he school setting, however, requires some easing of the restrictions to which searches by public authorities are ordinarily subject.”  Krasil v. Betze.

— In Texas, the legislature has approved a school safety bill that would require an armed person at every Texas campus.  Under the provisions of House Bill 3, the armed person can be either a peace officer, a school resource officer, a school marshal or a school district employee.  HB 3 also requires an updated emergency preparedness plan with audits at least once every three years, a regional education service center to help develop those plans and address campus security needs for local schools, mental health training for district employees who regularly interact with students, and the development of a notification system for parents and guardians about possible violent incidents on school grounds.

— In Connecticut, the legislature has approved a school safety bill that states, “(e)ach local or regional board of education that assigns a school resource officer to any school under the jurisdiction of such board shall enter into a memorandum of understanding with a local law enforcement agency regarding the role and responsibility of such school resource officer.”  The provisions of Bill No. 1095 also require that the MOU “shall be maintained in a central location in the school district and posted on the Internet web site of the school district.”  The key provision of the MOU must, “include provisions addressing daily interactions between students and school personnel with school resource officers, and shall include a graduated response model for student discipline.”

— In Delaware, the legislature has introduced a school safety bill that would allocate 10 million dollars to pay for school resource officers.  “If (Bill 167) is approved, this would mean at least one school resource officer for every 1,000 students if the school chooses to have one at all. The resource officers would derive from local police stations or state troopers.”

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Safety Law News for May 12, 2023

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–  In California, the California Court of Appeal reversed the dismissal of a lawsuit brought by a student who was shot in the head by a gun brought to his seventh grade science class by a fellow student.  The lawsuit of the student argued that the school breached its duty to properly supervise its students on the day of the shooting.  The appellate court agreed, holding that “even if the science teacher could not have foreseen that (the shooter) would bring a loaded gun to class, she had at a minimum a duty to observe what was happening in the classroom to discover and prevent aggressive, disorderly and dangerous behavior by students, which behavior was foreseeable.”  The appellate court ruled that, “(v)iewing the evidence in the light most favorable to (the injured student)…supports an inference that (the shooter) was discussing and displaying the gun for more than a few fleeting seconds, and for enough time for others in the classroom, potentially including the teacher, to have seen and heard her.  (W)e cannot agree with the trial court that as a matter of law events in the classroom unfolded so rapidly that supervisory personnel had no time to discover that (the student) had a gun and/or to respond.”  On this claim the court concluded that, “(w)e reject LAUSD’s contention that we should affirm the trial court’s order on the alternate basis that LAUSD is immune from liability.”  I.A. v. Los Angeles Unified School District

— In New York, officials for the Oswego City School District are switching back to the Oswego Police Department for its school resource officers after a short stint with the Oswego County Sheriff’s Office.  Oswego city police had previously provided resource officers for the district and educators believe that, “long term, it probably won’t hurt that a local department is handling the local district.”

— In Arizona, the Arizona Department of Education is entering the fray over the issue of safe school in Phoenix.  It announced that it will approve grants for armed school resource officers at six schools in the Phoenix Union High School District.  The Arizona Superintendent of Public Instruction also supports the return of police in the schools, saying that the reluctance of the local school board to keep schools safe is a concern.  “The decision of the Phoenix Union governing board against armed law enforcement officers not only goes against the recommendation of their own safety committee, but is a slap to the leadership of those schools and to the classroom teachers association who called for SROs because safety is needed.”

— In Tennessee, the Governor has approved a new law that allocates $230 million for enhanced school safety, including $30 million to place school resource officers in every public school, $54 million toward security upgrades for public and private schools, $140 million to place Homeland Security agents in every county to coordinate school security responses, and $8 million to provide new school-based behavioral help staff.

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Safety Law News for May 9, 2023

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–  In Pennsylvania, the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania reversed the trial court’s decision to allow a school district to remove an employee after he went public with criticism of how educators were falling down on their legal obligations to special needs students.  The appellate court agreed with the former an emotional support supervisor that the “causation evidence…(of) the School District’s wrongdoings and its retaliatory employment acts…is enough to get the question of causation to a jury.”  The appellate court found that the employee “did not have a history of unsatisfactory work performance prior to making his reports.”  And the appellate court found that he was dismissed, “days after his most recent report of wrongdoing.”  The court list the following failures as “(t)he facts of record, as developed in discovery.”  (1) educators had not hired the social workers and mental health professionals needed to provide the counseling services set forth in the IEPs of special education students; (2) did not provide special education students the necessary materials and services; (3) did not properly train the special education and emotional support teachers; (4) did not repair the time-out room located in one school that had exposed electrical outlets and a sharp object until a student suffered an injury; (5) submitted incomplete IEPs to the Pennsylvania Department of Education; (6) requested reimbursement for therapy services when no therapist were available to students; (7) permitted a student who had sexually assaulted other students to attend classes without notification to parents and teachers.  Carpenter v. William Penn School District

— In Virginia, a new agreement was created to return police to the Alexandria City Public Schools.  The Alexandria City Public Schools and the Alexandria Police Department say that, “a lot of the MOU remains unchanged (from its earlier version), …it places school resource officers (SROs) at the city’s high school and middle schools.”  “The areas where substantial updates and additions were added include the addition of the use of shared technology resources section, which speaks to the ways in which this partnership may transcend into the joint use of technology resources to support safety.”   SROs were defunded by the City Council last year.

— In Tennessee, teachers are going on record to share their experiences on campus safety after a campus shooting that left three adults and three 9-year-olds dead.  One teacher says, “I’ve gone from scared and terrified, to … so mad that I could kinda just punch anybody.”  Another teacher says, “nothing has changed…. the profession won’t protect me…It’s the guns. It’s always been the guns..”  A third teacher says, “(I)t’s just concerning to me that the priorities of those in power don’t seem to have educators’ best interest at heart. It seems like there’s a political agenda that puts other priorities in front of the safety of children.”

— In Ohio, officials in the Logan-Hocking School District are seeking assistance from a Texas-based nonprofit to improve campus safety and deter bullying after the suicide of a 15-year-old boy who attended Logan High School.  The Uvalde Foundation for Kids will be taking an independent look at educators policies on student bullying.

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Safety Law News for May 2, 2023

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–  In Texas, the United States Court of Appeals affirmed the school discipline meted out to a student athlete, who was suspended from the school football team for an Internet posting containing a racially-charged term to a student from a rival high school from an off-campus location following a football game.  In support of its affirmance, the appellate court, quoted from the U.S. Supreme Court case of Mahanoy Area School District v. B.L. ex rel Levy. involving school punishment for off-campus speech.  “(T)here are “three features of off-campus speech” which “diminish the strength of the unique educational characteristics that might call for special First Amendment leeway. These features are: (1) a school, in relation to off-campus speech, will rarely stand in loco parentis; (2) regulations of off-campus speech, when coupled with regulations of on-campus speech, include all the speech a student utters during the full 24-hour day; and (3) the school itself has an interest in protecting a student’s unpopular expression, especially when the expression takes place off campus.”  The appellate court acknowledged that school discipline is usually upheld against off-campus student speech directed at the school community.  Therefore, qualified immunity was appropriate for the school officials because, “(t)here is no clearly established rule that could have placed (school officials) on notice that disciplining McClelland for his off-campus speech was unconstitutional… a more defined rule will be left for another day.”  McClelland v. Katy Indep. Sch. Dist

— In Maryland, state and local officials are looking at ways to more effectively provide mental health training to municipal police officers.  Maryland law requires police departments to provide mental health training to their officers.  Some county officials prefer to satisfy the mandatory training through an advanced training program known as Crisis Intervention Team, or C.I.T., which brings together law enforcement, health professionals and others when responding to mental health crises.

— In Colorado, the Governor signed into law Senate Bill 23-70, which will require school resource officers to complete ongoing training from the Attorney General’s office on how to better utilize the state-run Safe2Tell service.  Safe2Tell is an anonymous tip line for students, parents and members of school communities.

— In Colorado, the Governor signed into Senate Bill 23-241, which creates a new state-level Office of School Safety. The new office will act as a hub for other school-related resources in the state government, with the bill tasking the office with overseeing the School Safety Resource Center and School Access for Emergency Response Grant Program. The Office of School Safety will also administer a new Youth Violence Prevention Grant Program, which will provide grants of up to $100,000 for schools, community organizations and local governments to address youth violence.