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Safety Law News for January 27, 2023

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— In North Carolina, the United States Court of Appeals upheld the dismissal of a teacher’s lawsuit against a school for injuries she received when she was physically attacked by a special education student when she was the only teacher in an inclusion class of 30 students.  The teacher specifically singled out the principal because the administrator was aware – as were others in the school – that the student was known to have been violent on prior occasions.  The court held that despite the Principal’s violation of school rules – school policy required that “when a class has ten of thirty students with (Individualized Education Plans (“IEPs”)), two teachers must be present,” – the teacher’s substantive due process claim failed as a matter of law.  The state-created danger doctrine…does not require governmental actors to affirmatively protect life, liberty, or property against intrusion by private third parties.”  The court held that, “the state-created danger exception applies only when the state affirmatively acts to create or increase the risk that resulted in the victim’s injury….[not] a failure to protect against a danger.”  Burns-Fisher v. Romero-Lehrer

— In West Virginia, the legislature is proposing a school safety policy that will allow teachers to serve as armed “School Protection Officers” in their buildings.  House Bill 2549, would permit each county to choose to decide it wants to place SPOs in its schools. Interested employees would have to obtain a concealed carry permit and undergo initial and then annual training and evaluations by the Department of Homeland Security.

— In Tennessee,  House Bill 127 would let school security officers restrain special education students.  The proposal is designed to protect students and teachers by “address[ing] an inconsistency in the law regarding who may use handcuffs, to secure special education students. As the law stands right now, school resource officers are allowed to use mechanical restraints but not school security officers.

— In Michigan, students in East Lansing High School students walked out of class to protest increasing incidents of violence in the school and inaction by the Board of Education.  The students specifically requests that school officials install safety enhancements on campus and improve communications between the district and the community.

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Safety Law News for January 25, 2023

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— In New York, the Supreme Court, Appellate Division, affirmed the dismissal of a case brought by parents of a student who committed suicide.  Prior to his death, the student placed a post on social media, declaring that he had been bullied and threatened to take his life.  Another student, who read the post, reported its contents to a teacher.  The teacher did not report the information to administrators until after the student’s death.  The court ruled that, “generally, the duty of care does not extend beyond school premises.  Exceptions to this rule are rare, and tend to involve incidents that are connected to or flow from activities that occur on school premises.”  Therefore, since, neither the student’s death by suicide nor social media exchange occurred within “the orbit of the district’s authority… the (school) established that their duty to adequately supervise the (student) did not encompass taking steps to prevent his suicide.”  Hauburger v. McMane

— In Kentucky, the school safety team in Knox County is revising and training an updated threat assessment process.  The team, including school resource officers, “studied the pathway to violence and the warning signs that they should be looking for.”  Special emphasis was placed on the fact that “the primary objective of a student threat assessment should be providing a student with help and working to ensure positive outcomes for the student and the community.”

— In Washington State, school officials in Yakima are looking to provide resources for students who are coming to campus under the influence of drugs.  The school resource officers are observing that “overdoses are happening at schools and most staff aren’t trained on how to help.”  Legislation was passed to lower Narcan costs, increase its availability and offer training to school staff.

— In Virginia, officials in the Henrico County Public Schools will begin deploying metal detectors after a loaded gun was found in a student’s backpack in a middle school.  The superintendent announced that, “enough is enough,” and that ‘trained staff will lead students, employees and visitors through free-standing detectors and/or screen them with hand-held metal detecting wands.”   The school district will also deploy “new weapon detection technology currently being used at some professional sports stadiums and other venues.”

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Safety Law News for January 23, 2023

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— In New Jersey, the Supreme Court of New Jersey refused to dismiss a lawsuit filed by a student who alleged that a teacher sexually assaulted him.  The school officials argued for the dismissal of the case because of the student’s failure to file a notice of claim within ninety (90) days as state law previously required.  The court ruled that “in 2019, the Legislature overhauled (state child protections laws) … allow(ing) survivors of child sexual abuse to file a claim any time before reaching the age of fifty-five, or seven years after discovering the harm, whichever is later.”  Therefore, “the plain meaning of the relevant statutes dictates that child sexual abuse survivors …need not file a (notice of claim within ninety (90) days) before filing suit.”  W.S. v. Hildreth

— In Arkansas, bipartisan legislation is looking to give more resources to teen parents in school to help them graduate. “The Parenting and Pregnant Students Act,” gives expecting parents, or current ones, additional excused absences from school, “to take care of issues like a sick kid, a doctor’s appointment or a court date.”  It revises current law that says that after 10 days of absences a student is considered truant.

— In Louisiana, school resource officers in Iberville Parish are being supplied with bulletproof shields, donated from the Dow Chemical company.  “These shields will sustain impact from a .308, all pistol rounds and especially AR-15 .223 rounds.”

— In Pennsylvania, the Penns Valley Area School District are deploying police on it campuses after a district-wide survey of the community revealed that a majority of the citizens prefer the officers in the schools and did not mind being taxed to pay for school safety.

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Safety Law News for January 20, 2023

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— In West Virginia, the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia, reversed and reinstated a lawsuit brought by a student whose claims of bullying were dismiss by the lower courts.  The lower courts granted the motion of the school board to dismiss for failure to state a claim.  The Supreme Court, reversed, holding that the board was not entitled to immunity from the allegations of the student that educators were aware he was severely bullied by his classmates, but took no action to stop it.  “(A) person does not generally owe a duty to protect another from the willful, malicious acts of a third party, but a duty may arise when the person’s affirmative actions or omissions have exposed another to a foreseeable high risk of harm from the intentional misconduct… (the Principal) owed (the student) a duty of protection and/or supervision …because it was or should have been foreseeable to him that his affirmative inaction would expose (the student) to the high risk of harm posed by the intentional misconduct of school bullies.” Jones v. Logan County Board of Education

— In Virginia, an advisory group urged the Alexandria School Board to permanently deploy school resource officers in its schools.  The City of Alexandria stopped funding the SRO program in 2020 after Black Lives Matter protests and calls to defund the police. The School Law Enforcement Partnership, made up of community members, police officers, students and teachers, presented a 38 page Report to the Board supporting its belief that “SROs alone won’t solve safety concerns – but they belong in the mix.”

— In Florida, officials in the Flagler County School District are considering two proposals to arm its employees to help keep students safe.  The first option would involve hiring “a civilian guardian force for just that purpose.”  The second option would involve determining if any current employees “would be willing to volunteer to be armed on campus and respond in a crisis, in addition to their official job duties.”  The Board is sending out surveys to all employees. — In Pennsylvania, the Altoona Area School Board approved AR-15 semi-automatic patrol rifles for “carry, deployment and use” by school resource officers.  “Officers will not be walking around hallways or around campuses,” with the guns.  The Board believes that the police should have access to them, “so that if there is a situation, heaven forbid, they will have access to what they need equipment-wise to deal with it.”  School shooters at Marjory Stoneman Douglas and Sandy Hook used AR-15s.

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Safety Law News for January 18, 2023

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— In Rhode Island, the United States District Court granted the request of a student for additional discovery in her lawsuit against school officials and a police officer.  The black female student’s claim arose out of a fight at school with a white female student.  “(T)he school resource officer, … decided to arrest her for disorderly conduct…stat(ing) repeatedly that he needed to “make an example” of her. He insisted that talking to students instead of arresting them “doesn’t work.””  The student was arrested, handcuffed, taken away in the back of a police car.  While the court dismissed the student’s claim on abuse of process for the officer’s desire to “make an example” of her “((it) may have been misguided or even cruel, it was not an improper purpose”), the court agreed that more discovery was required to obtain  “details about other students who have been disciplined after fighting… to properly develop comparators.”  T.J. by and through Johnson v. Rose

— In Michigan, the Governor announced that new funding will be earmarked to provide school resource officers for schools across the state.  Over the next three years, educators will have access to $25 million.  Nearly 200 school districts, intermediate school districts and public-school academics are receiving the grants.

— In Illinois, the Pulaski County School Board has created a School Security Committee, whose primary role is to meet periodically to evaluate plans related to improving school safety and security in its schools.  The committee will also serve as an advisory board on security issues and make recommendations on capital projects that will improve school security and safety on each campus.

— In Tennessee, Williamson County are partnering school resource officers with a therapy dog.  The canine will go from school to school, trained to work with special needs students and students who are having a difficult day.

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Safety Law News for January 13, 2023

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— In New York, the United States District Court, refused to dismiss a teacher’s lawsuit against a school district for a hostile work environment and retaliation.  The teacher constantly reported threats and derogatory comments on basis of teacher’s Jewish religion and white race from a fourth-grade student.  The court ruled that Title VII of the Civil Rights Act as well as provisions of New York law precluded dismissal of the teacher’s lawsuit.  “The question of whether school officials took appropriate remedial action is a question of fact, not law…If harassment continues after complaints are made, reasonable jurors may disagree about whether an employer’s response was adequate.”  Ringel v. New York City Department of Education, 19CV2374DGTAM, 2022 WL 17495081 (EDNY 2022)

— In Virginia, officials in the Albemarle County Public Schools are now considering the return of police on their campuses.  The school board previously eliminated police and replaced them with civilian non-sworn student safety coaches.  Now educators are reporting that “the safety coaches have not been satisfactory for some parents who point to social media posts saying that things have ‘gotten out of hand,’ especially at the high school level.”

— In Oregon, in the wake of a surge in shootings outside Portland high schools, more than a dozen education, civic and public safety leaders are discussing new policies to protect students.  The superintendent wants to see increased police presence around all district schools.  The school board removed police from all schools in June of 2020. 

— Nationally, data released by the U.S. Department of Education’s National Center for Education Statistics, reveals that only 24% of public schools feel ‘very prepared’ for active shooters on campus.  Schools experienced 302 school shootings in 2022, compared to 250 in 2021.