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Safety Law News for April 21, 2023

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–  In the Virgin Islands, the United States District Court, ruled that “the area within 1,000 feet of the school grounds is within the scope of sensitive places;…the presence of large numbers of children either at school or traveling to and from it [are such that] possession of firearms within some distance around such locations similarly presents the risk of danger and disruption.”  The ruling upheld the conviction of a man who was found carrying a firearm on a public school campus.  The court acknowledged that “the Second Amendment protects conduct by law-abiding citizens. Even so, the court applied one of the exceptions to this right found in the U.S. Supreme Court case of District of Columbia v. Heller, 554 U.S. 570 (2008) e.g., “this Nations historical tradition of lawfully disarming citizens in “sensitive places” … is constitutionally sound.”  United States v. Walker, No. 3:20-CR-0039, 2023 WL 3020321 (D.V.I. Apr. 20, 2023)

— In Indiana, officials in Warren Township district wants voters to approve an $88 million operating referendum that would increase property taxes to provide funding for 11 school resource officers, 14 school safety officers and equipment and supplies. 

— In Michigan, Port Huron police and school officials are working on a way to safely and calmly reunite students with family members in the event of a campus crisis incident.  Under the proposal, students will be brought to a reunification point away from the school. Reunification officials will then work to successfully connect students with their parents or guardians.

— In South Carolina, biometric gun safes are being installed in the Oconee County schools.  The goal is to provide officers with a place to store their patrol rifles in the safe during the school day instead of their patrol car. The school’s SRO is the only person who will be able to access the rifle in the safe using their fingerprint. SROs will also be able to access the safe in their school or another school in the district using a code if there is an emergency.

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Safety Law News for April 14, 2023

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–  In Massachusetts, the United States District Court, held that school officials “have broad discretion in restricting visitors,” and refused the lawsuit of a parent who argued that he had a constitutional interest to access the school during school hours.  The school barred the parent “from entering on or remaining in or upon (campus) buildings or surrounding grounds while school is in session …to the end of the …school year,” after the parent obtained a student’s phone number on while on campus and solicited her participation in his volunteer program without parental consent.  The court reasoned that, “the First Amendment does not guarantee the right to communicate one’s views at all times and places or in any manner that may be desired… (a) school during school hours is typically a nonpublic forum.”  The court concluded that the school policy was “narrowly tailored to serve (the school’s) significant government interest in ensuring student safety.”  Worthley v. School Committee of Gloucester

— In Arizona, the Governing Board of the Phoenix Union School District is being urged by the District’s student safety committee to bring back school police.  A student who served on the student safety committee stated, “We are not gun experts. We are not drug experts.  We can’t even handle human trafficking, That is why we need them there. The response time is extremely important.”  The state superintendent has announced a grant to fund the officers if the safety program is reinstated.  The grants allow schools in Arizona to get funding for counselors, social workers or school resource officers.  Polling shows Arizona residents in support of armed resource officers on school campuses.

— In Texas, the legislature is considering a proposal to increase school safety through providing additional mental health training for school resource officers.  House Bill 4777, will educate the officers in different mental health conditions that students experience, so they can direct the students to the right resources.

— In Florida, the Broward County School Board has voted to hire and pay 200 school resource officers at a salary of $103,000 annually, as part of a three-year plan.  The officers will be assigned to individual schools.

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Safety Law News for April 5, 2023

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–  In Texas, United States Court of Appeals, affirmed the dismissal of a lawsuit brought by a student who was suspended from the school’s football team for off-campus speech and transferred to an alternative school for the marijuana found in his vehicle during a subsequent on-campus search.  The appellate court agreed with the lower court that qualified immunity was appropriately given to the educators.  The student used the Internet to “send a message containing a racially-charged term to a student from a rival high school from an off-campus location following a football game.”  The speech fell within the range of school-discipline speech after the U.S. Supreme Court case on the First Amendment — Mahanoy Area School District v. B.L. ex rel Levy, because it was off-campus speech directed at the school community.  The appellate court also agreed that before Mahanoy no case placed educators “on notice that it would be unconstitutional to discipline (the student) for his off-campus speech…for a threat of violence apparently stated in jest.”  The appellate court affirmed the dismissal of the student’s claims based on the Due Process Clause, holding that he did not have a protected property or liberty interest in being on the school’s football team, nor was the student deprived of a protected property or liberty interest when placed in an alternative education program after marijuana was found in his car.  McClelland v. Katy Independent School District

— In Colorado, officials in the Denver Public Schools are continuing their resumption of collaboration with the Denver Police Department to provide school resource officers at more than a dozen campuses as soon as possible. The resumption of the school resource officers’ program comes following two campus shootings in February and March.

— In Arizona,  the safety committee for the Phoenix Public Schools is recommending the return of school resource officers.  The committee, after receiving feedback from “from students, parents, and staff,”  is asking the school board to vote on deploying “officers at all 23 campuses”  two years after the District removed the police.

— In Texas, school resource officers for the City of Irving are bonding with students while conducting a Safety Patrol Camp.  The students, called “Jr. Officers,” learn how to properly fold flags, how to assist with traffic control in their school parking lots, and how to problem solve.

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Safety Law News for March 31, 2023

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–  In North Carolina, the United States District Court rejected the Title VI claim of a parent that racial discrimination was the motivation behind a search of her vehicle, which her daughter parked in the school lot. Title VI prohibits discrimination on the basis of race in schools that receive federal educational funds.  The court dismissed the lawsuit because the school used a canine to conduct random sniffs of a row of cars in the parking lot.  The animal, trained to detect the odors of marijuana, cocaine, methamphetamine, and heroin, alerted on parent’s car.  The car was searched over the objection of the parent, who was called to the campus.  The court held that the parent, “failed, after having been afforded full discovery, to produce any evidence of discrimination, and her own naked opinion, without more, is not enough to establish a prima facie case of discrimination.”  The court also held that, “the evidence is that the car was flagged after a random dog sniff in the student parking lot…(the dog) did not know who the car belonged to.”  Humphries v. Rowan-Salisbury Board of Education

— In Arizona, the Phoenix Union High School District’s safety committee recommended bringing back school resource officers at its schools.  “The committee also passed a potential intergovernmental agreement between Phoenix PD and the district that provides guidelines, including that officers should not participate in school discipline and confirming the authority of the schools in hiring, training, and supervising the officers.”

— In Colorado, the school safety program in the Thompson School District is finding success in sending mental health clinicians to campus calls with police officers.  So far, the partnering of a school resource officer with a mental health clinician to calls has occurred in “nearly 150 calls involving students in crisis or with mental health needs… Once people start to understand what our role is in the district and how we can be utilized, our calls have started to pick up. We went from averaging two to three calls a day and now we’re upwards of five contacts in a day between the two of us…We’re not writing tickets…We’re not taking students to jail. We are getting them connected with services on the spot.”

— In Colorado, the City of Denver will pay for police officers returning to schools.  The Denver Police Department has agreed to provide school resource officers to the schools.  The school resource officers were phased out beginning in 2020.  Violence in the schools is making a priority the return of police to campuses.

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Safety Law News for March 29, 2023

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— In Tennessee, the United States Court of Appeals ruled that a school’s failure to diagnose a student’s disability at earliest possible moment was not a per se violation of the Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA).  The appellate court affirmed the dismissal of a case brought by parents who alleged that their child was denied services under IDEA when the school only took disciplinary steps against the child without testing him for a disability.  The court reasoned that “some disabilities are notoriously difficult to diagnose and even experts disagree about whether some should be considered disability at all.”  In addition, the court noted that the student, “had no history of receiving special education services, was enrolled in middle school for very brief time, and had recently moved across state lines as potential explanation for his disciplinary issues.” Ja. B. v. Wilson County Board of Education

— In Kentucky, legislation was signed into law allowing parochial and other private schools to develop pacts with local law enforcement agencies or the Kentucky State Police to have school resource officers on their campuses.  House Bill 540 puts private schools on equal footing with Kentucky’s public school systems.

— In Ohio, the Board for the Ashland City Schools approved a resolution that will allow county school resource officers to carry weapons on school grounds.  Under the newly-passed resolution, any person “designated in writing by the Superintendent” who also meets certain training requirements — in this case, county school resource officers — can open carry or concealed carry a weapon on school grounds.

— In Denver, the Denver Public Schools Board is acknowledging that “pressure from the community” was a “driving factor” in the reinstatement of the school resource officer program.  “Over 1,000 emails,” predominantly from folks that were impacted following a shooting that injured two faculty members, “were saying that they truly wanted the return of school resource officers.”  The Superintendent is authorized to “develop a long-term safety plan by the end of the summer.”

— In Oregon, the legislature is exploring ways to provide parents with real-time, accurate information when an emergency takes place in schools.  House Bill 3584 would require schools to alert parents, guardians and employees of safety threats.  “The bill instructs the Oregon Department of Education to develop a process in which schools can electronically notify individuals within 24 hours of an event.

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Safety Law News for March 24, 2023

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— Nationally, the United States Supreme Court ruled that “(t)he Individuals with Disabilities Education Act (IDEA) seeks to ensure children with disabilities receive a free and appropriate public education.”  The Court held that the IDEA administrative procedures for resolving disputes between students and educators is a separate remedy for parents that does not prevent parents from also bringing a lawsuit for discrimination under the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA).  The ruling will allow a deaf student, to pursue both remedies, based on his allegations that educators failed in their duties under IDEA and ADA.  The lower courts had “ barred (the student) from bringing an ADA claim without first exhausting all of IDEA’s administrative dispute resolution procedures.”  The Supreme Court reversed, holding that, where a (student) brings a suit under another federal law for compensatory damages—a form of relief … IDEA does not provide…. nothing in (IDEA) bars his way.”   The Court did caution that, “a (student) who files an ADA action seeking both damages and the sort of equitable relief IDEA provides may find his request barred or deferred if he has yet to exhaust (IDEA administrative procedures.)”  Perez v. Sturgis Public Schools

— In Colorado, the Denver Public Schools Superintendent ordered the return of school resource officers to its campuses.  In June 2020, the Denver Public Schools Board unanimously voted to remove student resource officers from campuses.  But a recent campus shooting in which two administrators were shot has changed the views of the Board.  “The board responded by saying it supports [the Superintendent’s] decision.”  The Mayor of the City of Denver Mayor “also called the decision to remove SROs a “mistake.””

— In Maryland, an audit conducted of the Baltimore County Public Schools and the police department discovered “ongoing concerns about whether county schools are safe for both students and staff.”  The report spells out seven problems and the corrective actions that need to be taken, including, “the police department is not quickly reporting to the school system student arrests made (off campus),” “regular meetings are not happening,” and “officers are not consistently teaching the required Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) program.”

— In Florida, the School Guardians Program, which employs non-sworn employees to patrol schools, is receiving positive feedback in the Escambia County Public Schools.  “There is no age limit for the program — only a minimum of physical requirements and ongoing recertification processes each guardian goes through.”  “Each guardian must be licensed to carry a firearm, and certified with more than 140 hours training by the sheriff’s office.”