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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.

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Safety Law News for January 9, 2023

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— In Ohio, the Supreme Court of Ohio resolved a split among the lower courts on school immunity to hold that schools are not immune for injuries “caused by the negligence of their employees and that occurs within or on the grounds of, and is due to physical defects within or on the grounds of, buildings that are used in connection with the performance of a governmental function.”  This language, taken from the provisions of the state immunity law, was held to defeat immunity of a school that failed to have a fire extinguisher or other safety equipment in a classroom.  Two students were severely burned after a bottle of isopropyl alcohol caught fire and exploded in a science class.  The Supreme Court of Ohio affirmed the trial court’s denial of the school’s motion to dismiss.  Doe v Greenville City Schools

— In Maryland, officials in St. Mary’s County are expanding the school resource officer program into the elementary schools.  The new officer will patrol the 19 public elementary schools on a rotating basis.  The Sheriff’s Office also intends to continue its Adopt-A-School program, where deputies volunteer to check on a specific elementary school during their regular duties.

— In Pennsylvania, the Mahanoy Area School District is creating its own school police department.  The Mahanoy Area School District Police Department will be a dedicated police unit that serves all law enforcement needs in the school district on a full-time basis.  This will resolve campus safety issues that were caused by staffing shortages in the Mahanoy City Police Department, which resulted in schools lacking a police presence on certain days.

— In New York, the  Rochester Board of Education are bringing back police to its campuses after another shooting on a high school campus.  The officers, from the Rochester Police Department, will only monitor school arrivals and dismissals.  The school board is reluctant to reinstate the full school resource officer program after terminating it in 2020. 

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Safety Law News for January 6, 2023

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— In Florida, the United States Court of Appeals held that school officials’ policy of separating school bathrooms based on biological sex did not violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment nor did it violate the statutory requirements of Title IX.  The court reasoned that (1) educators were responsible for providing “proper attention to health, safety, and other matters relating to the welfare of students” within the school district; (2) The protection of students’ privacy interests in using the bathroom away from the opposite sex and in shielding their bodies from the opposite sex was an obvious and important governmental objective; (3) the bathroom policy was substantially related to that objective; and (4) Title IX’s general prohibition on sex discrimination provides “an express carve-out with respect to living facilities: “nothing contained [in Chapter 38] shall be construed to prohibit any educational institution receiving funds under this Act, from maintaining separate living facilities for the different sexes.””  Adams by and through Kasper v School Board of St. Johns County

— In Kansas, all employees in the Blue Valley School District wear emergency alert buttons.  The “CrisisAlert badge” equips them to press the button three times to alert administrators, school resource officers, and school nurses to an emergency.  An entire school can go on lockdown with just eight button presses.

— In Indiana, the Muncie Community Schools will now conduct its own background checks on school security guards.  The school district has a contract with a private security company, Legacy Life Security Solutions, to provide guards.  However, a guard was recently charged with intimidation where the defendant draws a deadly weapon, two counts of dealing marijuana with a prior drug conviction, as well as driving while suspended with a prior conviction.

— In Indiana, officials in Austin are changing school district policy after a kidnapping incident on the playground of one of its schools.  A woman, unrelated to any child on the playground, went over the playground’s fence and picked up a child. School resource officers will act as monitors when students are outside.