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Safety Law News for September 10, 2024

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— In New York, the United States District Court approved the request of a group of parents suing an elementary-school administrator for “dozens of counts of child abuse,” to add on claims against others as well as the school district itself in failing to “sound the alarm.”  The court applied the “bystander” theory of liability.  This form of liability reaches beyond the misconduct of the school employee to others who fail to respond to the misconduct.  The rule is “even where the direct tortfeaser was not acting within the scope of her employment when she commits the predicate tort, an employer may nonetheless be liable under a theory of respondeat superior if other employees, acting within the scope of their employment, negligently respond to the direct tortfeaser.”  The court is allowing the amended claim after finding that an “Assistant Principal… testified at (the Principal’s) criminal trial that she saw signs of (child) abuse yet did not report them.”  Doe v. Hilton Central School District

— In Arizona, Arizona Superintendent Tom Horne has extended the Department of Education’s agreement with the entity, Off Duty Management, “to make sure students, educators and staff are protected by armed and uniformed School Safety Officers.” Off Duty Management “was founded by former law enforcement officers (and) works directly with local law enforcement agencies and school districts to fill vacant School Safety Officer positions.”

— Nationally, school cell phone bans are being discussed in different ways after the Georgia shooting.  “The Georgia school shooting that left four dead and nine injured last week was every parent’s worst nightmare, and one that highlights potential downsides to efforts among states, school districts and federal lawmakers to ban or restrict access to cellphones in classrooms.”

— In Tennessee, educators are becoming more rigorous in their response to students “making a threat against a school.” “Lawmakers and district officials said they hoped the significant punishments deter students from making those threats, which have to be treated as real even if there’s no plan or intent behind them.”

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Safety Law News for September 6, 2024

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— In Kentucky, the Supreme Court of Kentucky upheld the dismissal of a school resource officer who underperformed on the job, allowing the police department to act decisively in removing the officer.  The tenure of the officer on campus included two incidents. “He was involved in an altercation with a 13-year-old student…during which he struck (the student) in the face. He subsequently arrested (the student), charging him with two public offenses, but failed to read (the student) his Miranda rights.” And “He was involved in another altercation with a different student…during which he wrapped his arms around (the student) so tightly that (the student) lost consciousness.”  The Merit Board, the Circuit Court, and the Kentucky Court of Appeals upheld the termination.  The SRO argued, among other things, that “the Merit Board wrongly included expunged materials” in its consideration of his appeal despite the officer’s success in getting the criminal charges brought against him dismissed and his criminal record expunged in the records of the “police and other agencies outside of the court system.”  The SRO also  argued that his rights under the Due Process Clause were violated.  The Kentucky Supreme Court upheld the termination, rejecting the expungement argument because “information contained in the (employment) file is neither a criminal record nor would it appear on a state-performed background check, (and therefore) is not subject to the expungement order.”  As to due process, the Kentucky Supreme Court ruled that although, “there are significant interests to both the individual and the public that are at stake in deciding how much process is due a terminated police officer in front of the Merit Board…(G)iven the significant safeguards already provided (in Kentucky law) to officers in matters before the Merit Board, the risk of error is relatively low.  As to the power of the Chief to discipline the officer the court held that, “(i)f we were to hold that the Chief could not terminate an employee for a violation of (a department policy) based on a violation of a law until that employee was formally convicted of the underlying offense, we would, in essence, be holding the Chief to a beyond a reasonable doubt standard of proof. Practically speaking, a holding such as that … would also serve to prevent the Chief from finding a violation of (department policy)… until after a conviction, which, as is exemplified by this case, can take years. We refuse to require the Chief to either find a violation beyond a reasonable doubt or wait until a criminal conviction is final to find a violation. Probable cause that an employee has violated a law is sufficient to sustain a finding by the Chief of a violation of (a department policy).”  Hardin v. Louisville/Jefferson County Metropolitan Government

— In Georgia, Barrow County officials say that a panic alarm “saved lives” at Apalachee High School during a shooting in which two students and two teachers were killed and eight students and one teacher were injured.  Centegix CrisisAlert ID technology “sent alerts of an active shooter at Apalachee High School to the Barrow County Sheriff’s office (and) also sent GPS coordinates of the person who triggered the alert.”  The response of the school resource officers “was very fast…saving a lot of lives.”  One teacher said, “I actually saw lockdown initiate before I even heard gunshots, so I had time to prepare.”

— In Wisconsin, officials in the Wausau School District are deploying new technology at school entrances to enhance campus safety. A visitor screening tool, Visitor Aware by Singlewire Software, screens and verifies guests and volunteers “to establish a standard check-in procedure for all guests and identify potential issues before (persons) can fully gain access to a school.”

— In Delaware, officials in Cape Henlopen are deploying weapons detection systems for football games.  The EVOLV System, identifies “potential weapons like guns and knives that could be entering the Cape Henlopen High School’s stadium.”  “This joins the school resource officer, constables and other Delaware State Police officers at each football game.”

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Safety Law News for September 3, 2024

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— In Michigan, the United States District Court upheld the authority of a school official to have “students take off…sweatshirts because the official interpreted the phrase as having a profane meaning.”  The students wore shirts that displayed the message “Let’s Go Brandon.”  In the context of the sporting event from which the phrase was taken, both the students and the school official “understood that the phrase referenced the profane chant at the NASCAR event…“F*** Joe Biden.”  The court ruled that “speech that is vulgar or profane is not entitled to absolute constitutional protection.”  The court concluded that school officials had “established that a reasonable interpretation of the phrase Let’s Go Brandon is that it conveys a profane and vulgar message with reference to President Joe Biden.”  Therefore, “if schools can prohibit students from wearing apparel that contains profanity, schools can also prohibit students from wearing apparel that can reasonably be interpreted as profane.” D.A. v. Tri County Area Schools

— In Pennsylvania, the Boyertown Area School District is announcing its decisions to allocate a $525,607 school safety grant.  The grant, the award by of the School Safety and Security Committee, will earmark “just under $45,000 to fund equipment that will further enhance security monitoring systems,” “$297,000 will be used to fund two police officers,” and “$182,000 is to be used for school mental health programming for students.”

— In Florida, St. Lucie Public School officials are implementing “higher security measures for football games.”  “The changes included random metal detector scans, banning large backpacks and not allowing entry after the first half of the game.”  The changes are in response to a gun-related incident that disrupted a high school football game last month.

— In North Carolina, Nash County Schools “will begin selecting elementary school students at random to walk through metal detectors.” Officials said that “administrators will also begin randomly screening elementary students with handheld wands.”  “The announcement said that the random screenings will be done to keep the schools free of weapons.”

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Safety Law News for August 29, 2024

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— In Virginia, the Court of Appeals of Virginia denied immunity for school officials after a ten year old student, getting off his school bus, was hit by a car as he was crossing the street.  The student alleged negligence on the part of the school board, claiming that the school board was “directly liable because they negligently failed to use reasonable care in the selection of bus drop off sites and procedures to keep students safe.”  Citing the changes in the underlying state laws on immunity, the appellate court reversed the lower court.  State law now “abrogates sovereign immunity for school boards when they directly own and operate school buses” or are under contract with any person to provide bus services.  Sending the case back to trial, the appellate court ruled that “whether the accident occurred as part of using the school bus is a fact-intensive inquiry.”  The appellate court also noted that “the mere fact that (the school board) may be the insured under a policy involving the school bus in question does not answer the next question of whether (the student’s) injury was due to the “ownership, maintenance, or use or operation of a vehicle.”  Hamilton v. Jackson

— In Kentucky, the Kentucky Office of the State Schools Security “released its yearly report indicating which schools across Kentucky are following statutory safety standards that were passed in 2022” in House Bill 63.  The Report documents a 99.81% compliance rate.”  Included in the policy is the requirement that every public school employ a school resource officer.

— In Washington D.C., the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention has released its 2023 School Crime and Safety Report.  “The report highlights findings from 23 indicators on various school crime and safety topics.”  One key finding is that “schools reported higher incident rates of firearm possessions.”  Also,  “public school students from kindergarten to 12th grade were reported to have possessed firearms at schools (at a rate) higher than in any other school year over the previous decade.”

— In Wisconsin, the Milwaukee Public Schools are “still working on plan for school resource officers 9 months after (a) state deadline.”  State policymakers increased sales taxes as part of an agreement for school officials to “have 25 school resource officers in place by January 1 (2024).”  The campus safety issue in Milwaukee is a big deal. Data show that “from August 2022 to December 2022, there were almost 1,700 calls for police to MPS schools. And those calls aren’t slowing down.” 

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Safety Law News for August 26, 2024

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— In New York, the Supreme Court, Appellate Division, refused to dismiss a case bought by parents of the child who “was sexually abused by a principal while a student.”  The pattern of abuse involved the administrator “repeatedly meeting alone with (student) behind closed doors for no articulated reason.”  The court ruled that “without actual or constructive notice of an individual’s criminal propensity, a school district may be held liable for an injury that is the reasonably foreseeable consequence of circumstances it created by its inaction.”  On this basis liability for negligent supervision, training, and negligent retention could be established upon the evidence that “the principal continued to call (the student) into his private office in the same manner at least 50 times over the next two years, without providing an explanation to plaintiff’s teachers and despite the fact that (the student) was not misbehaving in class, and sexually abused him there.”  Blanchard v. Moravia Central School District

— In Alabama, the legislature is introducing a policy that will enhance campus safety in private schools.  Senate Bill 4 would authorize a sheriff and county commission, or chief of police and city council, to provide SROs to private schools so long as SROs are available to all public schools in the jurisdiction.

— In Washington State, officials in the Seattle Public Schools are spending $14.5 million to enhance school safety following gun violence that places its campuses at risk.  Included are funds for hiring “more mental health counselors and social workers including 42 new positions to work at 21 school based health centers.”  “The money will also be used to expand safe passageway programs that help students get to and from school safely, and create a resource fund for families most at risk for gun violence.”

— Nationally,  Alyssa’s Law, which mandates the installation of silent panic alarms in elementary and secondary schools, has been enacted in “New York, New Jersey, Florida, Tennessee, Texas and most recently Utah.” It is also proposed “nationally and in Nebraska, Arizona, Michigan and many other states.”  The goal of the policy is to immediately alert emergency agencies, including law enforcement “without alerting an intruder,” enabling a faster responses.

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Safety Law News for August 22, 2024

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— In Kentucky, the United States District Court dismissed the case of a teacher in a case involving a gun that was found in her possession.  Applying the Fourth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, the court characterized the case this way:  “What happens, then, when two school employees suspect that their colleague is under the influence of prescription medication, search her bag without permission, and find a firearm inside?  And what happens when school board officials find out and want to question the perpetrator? Has the Fourth Amendment been transgressed? The court held that the conduct of the employees (a registrar and a guidance counselor) was “conduct taken under color or pretense of state law” to which the constraints of the Fourth Amendment would apply.  The court held that the teacher had right to privacy in her purse – a reasonable expectation of privacy – because her “bag is not part of the workplace context” and there was no school “policy that could have provided (the teacher) with any notice that her personal effects could be subjected to a search.”  However, the court dismissed the lawsuit against the two school employees, applying qualified immunity to their conduct because “there exists no readily apparent precedent governing these facts… that an examination of a coworker’s bag under these circumstances would be held unconstitutional.”  Therefore, “(b)ecause (the teacher) has failed to prove that her right to be free from a search in this specific context by two collegial peers is clearly established, (the school employees) are entitled to qualified immunity.”  Lawson v. Creely

— In Illinois, “Waukegan School District 60 Superintendent of Schools Theresa Plascencia said in a letter to parents and staff that the school district has begun the year without the support of school resource officers (SROs) due to the lack of an intergovernmental agreement with the City of Waukegan.”

— In New Mexico, Officials in the Albuquerque Public Schools are implementing a Reunification Card Program to help “ease the wait in the unlikely event a school has to reunify students with parents/guardians in a non-typical end of the school day.”  “The cards are unique to each student, with a name, bar code and instructions on the back for families to utilize if they have to pick up their student or students during a reunification process.  Each family will receive two cards per student.”

— In Alabama, the Governor Kay signed HB 290 — the John Wesley Foster Act, “legislation that requires public schools to have a cardiac emergency response plan (CERP) in place that instructs people to dial 911, start CPR, and use an AED on campus and at school-sponsored athletic events in the case of a cardiac emergency.”