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Safety Law News for August 2, 2022

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— In South Dakota, the United States Court of Appeals affirmed the denial of qualified immunity to a teacher who was sued by parents for restraining and secluding students in a special education program.  The court held the teacher’s habit of placing a student in a 10 feet by 10 feet room for rule breaking, holding the door shut until the student was able to “demonstrate calm behavior and complete several task baskets,” was a seizure.  This permitted the parents to assert a claim based on the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition on unreasonable searches and seizures.  The court held that while “an ordinary school timeout is not a Fourth Amendment seizure… dragging students, confining them in locked or barricaded areas, and barring them from leaving on pain of further physical intervention (was) severe enough to implicate the Constitution.”  Applying the reasonableness test of New Jersey v. T.L.O., 469 U.S. 325 (1985), the court affirmed the denial of both qualified immunity and the teacher’s motion to dismiss the case.  “Because (the teacher) substantially departed from accepted principles when restraining and secluding the students, she violated clearly established federal rights.”  Doe v Aberdeen School District

— In California, a survey by Stride, Inc., is reporting that many parents are concerned about safely sending their children back to their local public school in-person and considering other options.  Over half (52 percent) of parents or guardians with children enrolled in public school would prefer enrolling them in private school.

— In Ohio, the Governor DeWine announced $47 million in grants will be awarded to schools across the state to fund safety-related expenses.  Schools will receive up to $50,000 each in grant funding to help cover safety-related expenses like security cameras, automatic door locks and exterior lighting.  The Governor said that “helping schools pay for important security improvements is just one component of our comprehensive school safety approach that also supports the mental wellbeing of our kids and the work of local law enforcement to prevent crime.”

— In Arkansas, the North Little Rock School District is installing new technology as part of a $726,000 initiative from the district to improve security.  The technology includes weapons detectors that set off an alarm for weapons and large knives, but not for smaller metallic items such as keys.  New video technology will give security guards better real‐time control over the school’s cameras and footage.  New software will screen all visitors and volunteers, conduct background checks and keep track of how long they should be at any given school.

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Safety Law News for July 28, 2022

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— In North Carolina, the United States District Court refused to dismiss the excessive force case of a 7-year old student who was handcuffed by a police officer.  The officer interrupted two educators who were allowing the special needs student to calm down in the school’s “quiet room,” in compliance with their Crisis Prevention Intervention training.  After the student spat at the educators, the officer took over, handcuffing the student on the floor for 38 minutes with his knee in the student’s back. The educators did not intervene in any way. The court held that it was a question for a jury to determine whether the educators breached their duty to protect the student by failing to intervene.  The court also held that the facts met the “truly egregious circumstances” standard for the negligent infliction of emotional distress under state law. Finally the court denied immunity for the officer, finding that “all school resource officers (are) on notice that young children who commit minor offenses should not be handcuffed if they pose no safety threat or flight risk.”  A.G. v Fattaleh

— In Mississippi, the Mississippi Board of Education voted to revise its policy that prohibited anyone other than law enforcement from carrying guns on public school campuses.  As a result of this change, any school district may allow its employees who hold enhanced conceal carry licenses to possess weapons at school.

— In Oklahoma, over 100 resource officers and school administrators from across the state are receiving school safety training hosted by the Tulsa County Sheriff’s Office.  The participants are being trained on threat assessments, social media threats, active shooter procedures, and best practices toward creating trusting relationships with students.

— In Illinois, school resource officers from the Peoria Public Schools are partnering with the Peoria Police Department to enforce curfews and head off youth violence and other incidents.  Under the agreement, the school officers, who are familiar with many of the youth and their families, will assist the police department in addressing youth violence before it spills over into the schools.

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Safety Law News for July 26, 2022

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— In Georgia, the United States District Court ruled that, “the fact that a (student) is injured during (a) confrontation with police does not necessarily mean that the injuries resulted from an unconstitutional use of excessive force.”  This ruling granted the motion to dismiss a case brought by a student who alleged excessive force by a police officer who, while braking up a fight between two female high school students, briefly applied pressure to the neck of a student who was fiercely resisting.  The court also held that “the (the student’s) resistance included cursing and striking (the officer)  (not just wriggling to get away), and (the officer)  even had to get medical attention after the encounter.”  The court placed special emphasis on the facts that, “the officer, never put his hands or arms around (the student’s) neck (no choke hold), (the student) did not express discomfort at the time (no breathing complaints), she instead told (the officer) she was fine, nothing suggests she experienced any aftereffects (no pain or neck brace).” Grandy v Huenke

— In New York, the Lewis County Board of Legislators have revised the school safety plan to increase the presence of its officers.  Under the revised contract, the officers will be present the entirety of the school year — including for summer school.  The officials stated that, “(a) 12-month model gives us the coverage during the summer months where schools have really started to have a lot of activity which has changed over the years…Ultimately our goal is to try to have an SRO any time there’s a large number of students on campus.”

— In Kentucky, the legislative Joint Committee on Education is asking the Kentucky Department of Education and the Kentucky Center for School Safety to place special emphasis on school infrastructure, exterior doors, and controlled access to buildings.  Under the School Safety and Resiliency Act, the legislature has appropriated a total of more than $230 million for school safety.  State School Security Marshals are making assessments of all schools, reporting deficiencies to the Kentucky Center for School Safety.

— In Kansas, the Johnson County prosecutor ruled that the school resource officer, who shot a student who brought a gun to campus, will not face charges.  The prosecutor closed the investigation after making the following findings:

“The Olathe School Resource Officer believed that he was going to die when (the student) drew a handgun and began firing at him. He watched the muzzle flashes and felt the bullets impact his body. This was a sudden burst of deadly violence without provocation. Objectively, the facts support this belief. The female assistant principal told investigators that (the student) drew and shot his gun before the SRO could respond. The SRO was shot four times resulting in three gunshot wounds. This was clearly a deadly force situation. Under all the appropriate legal statutes and cases as cited above, it was reasonable for the officer to use deadly force against (the student).”

Prior to the shooting, an unidentified student notified school staff that the shooter had been bringing a gun to school. Two assistant principals went to the student’s classroom and pulled him out, asking him to bring his backpack with him. While the three were sitting down in an assistant principal’s office, administrators asked to search Elmore’s backpack, according to investigators. The student refused to allow his backpack to be searched.

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Safety Law News for July 21, 2022

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— In New York, the Supreme Court, Appellate Division, held that, “where an accident occurs in so short a span of time that even the most intense supervision could not have prevented it, any lack of supervision is not a proximate cause of the injury.”  As a result, the dismissal of a case brought by a student injured on campus was affirmed.  The injury occurred when the student, while pretending to play basketball in the school’s entranceway, inadvertently slapped a glass panel of a wall-mounted display case instead of hitting the wall, causing the glass to shatter.  The court noted that while, “schools are under a duty to adequately supervise the students in their charge and they will be held liable for foreseeable injuries proximately related to the absence of adequate supervision,” unforeseeable and “sudden and spontaneous occurrence(s)” fall outside this duty. R. B. v. Sewanhaka Central High School District

— In Washington, D.C. the National Disability Rights Network (NDRN) sent a letter to federal agencies regarding the implementation of the Luke and Alex School Safety Act of 2022.  The Act is part of the recently enacted Bipartisan Safer Communities Act.  It directs the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) in coordination with the Secretary of Education (ED), Attorney General (AG) and Secretary of Health and Human Services (HHS) to establish a Federal Clearinghouse on School Safety Evidence-based Practices.  The Letter ask the federal agencies for a transparent and inclusive process for implementing their obligations under the Act.

— In Georgia, the Georgia Department of Education and the Georgia Emergency Management and Homeland Security Agency are using a federal grant to fund a new website to disseminate school safety resources and updated training to Georgia schools, community partners and the public.  Every public school in Georgia is required to have a school safety plan, and to conduct drills on that plan. Plans address school violence prevention training, mental health awareness, school security measures, partnerships with public safety officials, and are developed in coordination with local law enforcement and the local juvenile court system.

— In Texas, the Dallas Independent School District now requires clear or mesh backpacks for students.  School officials will distribute the backpacks before the start of the school year.  The district said the decision stems from recommendations made by the district’s safety and internal task forces as well as student and parent feedback gathered earlier this month.

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Safety Law News for July 18, 2022

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— In Pennsylvania, the United States Court of Appeals reversed the suspension and expulsion of a student who, while off campus with friends, “took a picture of his friends wearing wigs and hats, including one hat that resembled a foreign military hat from the World War II period (and) posted (it) on the social media platform Snapchat (with the) caption.. ‘Me and the boys bout to exterminate the Jews.’”  The appellate court applied the rules of the recent U.S. Supreme Court case Mahanoy Area School District v. B.L., 141 S. Ct. 2038 (2021), characterizing it as a case that “identified…features of off-campus speech that often, even if not always, distinguish schools’ efforts to regulate that speech from their efforts to regulate on-campus speech.”  The appellate court ruled that as to the school’s “anti-vulgarity interest,” in disciplining the student that Mahanoy removes any authority educators have for disciplining off-campus speech for this reason.  As to “students being upset by the post and discussing it (at school),”  the appellate court stated that after Mahanoy, “(the) risk of transmission to the school does not inherently change the off-campus nature of all speech on social media.”  Therefore, applying the standard of Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District, 393 U.S. 503 (1969), the appellate court found that “some students being upset by the post and discussing it during class for a few days …did not meet Tinker’s demanding standard of  ‘substantial disruption’ of a school activity or a threatened harm to the rights of others that might justify the school’s action.”  Finally, the appellate court protected the hate speech reflected in the statement, “me and the boys bout to exterminate the Jews,” citing references from the Mahanoy case that, “offensive, controversial speech can still be protected.” The appellate court remanded the case so that the trial court could address the question of qualified immunity. C1.G on behalf of C.G. v. Siegfried

— In Texas, the 77-page Report from the Texas House of Representatives on the May 24 shooting at Robb Elementary School in the city of Uvalde found systemic failures and egregiously poor decision making” on behalf of law enforcement and school officials.  The Report cites a “failure of command,” in which “the school district fell short on campus safety preparations and …law enforcement moved too slowly.”  The Governor released a statement committing to working with the legislature “to develop and implement the necessary changes to improve public safety, school safety, and mental health assessment and treatment.”

— In Georgia, the school safety program of the Cobb County school system allows employees, not teachers, to carry guns at school.  The Cobb County School Board approved the policy authorizing the superintendent to authorize certain school employees to carry guns on school property, on school buses and at school events.  The staff members will have to be licensed, undergo the same gun training as certified school resource officers, and take a psychological evaluation.

— In Kentucky, the Hardin County Sheriff’s Office announced all deputies, including school resource officers, will begin wearing body cameras.  The cameras were purchased through community donations and fundraisers.

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Safety Law News for July 15, 2022

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— In Minnesota, the United States Court of Appeals applied the standard of Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District, to vacate the decision of the lower court that allowed school officials to discipline students who wore T-shirts displaying a Smith & Wesson logo and the image of a revolver.  The court held that the more lenient standard for student speech restrictions in a nonpublic forum from the case of Hazelwood Sch. Dist. v. Kuhlmeier, did not apply because the T-shirts were not school sponsored.  On remand the issue will be whether a disruption was caused by the wearing of the T-shirts.  N.J. by Jacob v. Sonnabend

— In Virginia, the Henrico Public Schools requested $5 million from county supervisors to increase school security.  The request is for 10 additional school resource officers, in addition to expediting the school system’s camera replacement/enhancement plans.  The officers would not be involved with behavior management but would instead be used to help secure school buildings and fill the gaps that may exist with staffing. The officers would also undergo rigorous training to ensure they are qualified to handle a mass emergency in a school.

— In Virginia, the Roanoke City Public School Board approved a new set of safety measures for the upcoming school year.  Elements of the revised program include school resource officers in each school, an increase the number of cameras on campuses, replacing antiquated lock sets, the creation of new security technician position, a safety tip line system, and adding additional assistant principals.

— In Iowa, the Cedar Rapids School Board voted to approve the district’s School Resource Officer contract with Cedar Rapids Police.  The Board had previously tabled the issue, due in part to a lack of survey data from students regarding the program.  The SRO program received full support from the Cedar Rapids City council at a June meeting.  The Cedar Rapids Police Department recommendation was also for continuing the program in Cedar Rapids schools.