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Safety Law News for September 22, 2022

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— In New York, the United States Court of Appeals, held that a school bus driver’s ongoing debate with his colleagues about the best way to report maintenance issues involving school buses involved internal communications rather than citizen speech, and thus his statements were not protected by First Amendment.  The court upheld the termination of his employment, stating that, “reporting policies, even when discussed in the context of union negotiations, generally fall into the category of workplace and union operations, which we have declined to treat as matters of public concern.”  The bus driver preferred a daily reporting procedure until safety issues were corrected.  The mechanics and other officials favored the existing procedure that required safety issues to be reported one time, a practice that the bus driver believed permitted unsafe buses to be out on the road.  Shara v. Maine-Endwell Central School District

— In Wisconsin, the Wauwatosa School Board reaffirmed its commitment to its school resource officers after a rise of violent incidents, mainly at after school activities.  In a note to the parents school officials gave notice that “given the intensity and frequency of recent incidents, we will immediately implement the most significant penalties available to us…for students that choose to engage in fights.”

— In Nebraska, officials in the Beatrice Public Schools are conducting training on what parents should do during school emergencies.  The training focused on emergencies such as school shootings, providing the parents with a summary of the problems schools experienced in incidents in other states.  Topics included communication, safety drills, as well as answering parents’ questions on school crisis response policies.

— In Kentucky, public schools districts are experiencing difficulty complying with the requirement to deploy a police officer on each campus.  The mandate, enacted in 2022, provides no funding.  Schools are having difficulty finding, paying, and training officers in sufficient number to comply with the mandate.  The Kentucky State School Security Marshal is helping educators find school resource officers.

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Safety Law News for September 15, 2022

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— In Pennsylvania, the United States District Court refused to dismiss the lawsuit of a student who created at his home a computer-generated, tournament-style bracket that reflected voting by himself and a few friends regarding 64 girls, mostly classmates, to determine the two most liked or admired girls.  Months later, another student discovered the activity on the Internet and disseminated it publicly.  School discipline consisted of a written apology by the student who created the activity and punishment in the form of excluding him from speaking at the graduation ceremony.  The court held that school officials may punish or censor student speech without offending the First Amendment when (1) the speech that is vulgar, lewd, or threatening; (2) the speech is related to the school curriculum; (3) when the speech would materially and substantially disrupt classwork and discipline in the school, or invade the rights of others.  The court ruled that the off-campus speech was protected because it was not intended to harm, harass, or objectify anyone and was expected to remain private.  The school discipline in revoking the position of the student as a speaker at graduation violated the First Amendment.  Wang v Bethlehem Central School District

— In Congress, the Securing Our Schools Act of 2022 has been introduced.  Under the provisions of the legislation, $15 billion is provided to double the number of school resource officers, $10 billion to hire 15,000 mental health professionals for middle and high schools and $2.56 billion for physical security improvements on school campuses.

— In Ohio, police officers from the Cincinnati Police Department will remain in the public schools.  The Cincinnati Public Schools Board of Education voted to continue using school resource officers.  The five-year contract outlines protocols for discipline, training, and policies.  A member of the school board says of this decision, “we have some excellent SROs who are wonderful people dedicated to youth and preventing crime.”

— In Florida, a recent grand jury report found Duval County Public Schools officials failed to report over 2,000 crimes.  A 2020 grand jury preliminary report first sounded the alarm, citing the district for underreporting crime statistics and gang activity.

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Safety Law News for September 9, 2022

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— In Michigan, the United States District Court upheld the school discipline of a ten (10) day suspension to a student for posting to a fake Instagram account that he created off-campus impersonating a teacher, sharing the username and password with other students, and targeting other teachers with subsequent posts.  Applying the recent off-school speech case of Mahanoy Area School District v. B.L. ex rel. Levy, 141 S.Ct. 2038 (2021), the court “balanced the school’s interest in disciplining a student’s speech against the off-campus features of his speech and then addressed the ‘material disruption’ prong of Tinker v. Des Moines Independent Community School District, 393 U.S. 503 (1969).”  The school discipline was valid because the Instagram account impersonated one teacher and targeted others teachers, qualifying as “serious or severe bullying or harassment,” giving the school a significant interest in disciplining the speech that “interfered with the work and discipline of the school.”  Kutchinski v Freeland Community School District

— In Arkansas, the Arkansas School Safety Commission is launching an anonymous tip line to report safety threats.  The tip line is one of several recommendations submitted to the Governor in a Report on protecting school students.  Other recommendations focus on areas such as mental health and prevention, law enforcement and security, audits, emergency operations plans and drills, physical safety, and intelligence and communication.

— In New York, officials in New York City are making school safety a priority.  Over 200 school safety agents will patrol schools.  The buildings were checked for working door locks, alarms, panic buttons, and operable public announcing systems.  School personnel are receiving training on active shooter procedures in coordination with law enforcement.

— In the United States, parents who are concerned for their children’s safety at school is at the highest level in over two decades.  According to Gallup, 44% of parents said they fear for their child’s physical safety while at school, compared with 34% of parents in the previous survey.

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Safety Law News for September 1, 2022

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— In Mississippi, the Court of Appeals of Mississippi reversed a ruling in favor of a student who was injured at school, playing tag as he waited on his school bus.  The court reversed the lower court because even though state law imposes on schools “a ministerial duty to use ordinary care and to take reasonable steps to minimize foreseeable risks to students thereby providing a safe school environment,…there was no a proximate causal connection between the inadequacy or lack of supervision and the accident.”  Proximate cause requires a finding that the negligence of a school be both the cause in fact and the legal cause of the injury to the student.  Here, the court reversed, declaring that “(the student’s) injury happened suddenly and accidently. Further, (the student’s) injury could not have been foreseen even if more supervision had been present.”  Simpson County School District v Wigley

— In Virginia, the General Assembly approved an additional $45 million over two fiscal years for school safety to pay for new school resource officers and school security officers.  The funding will support 185 positions across 182 schools, including 110 elementary schools, 24 middle schools and 31 high schools.  The top priority will be filling positions at middle and high schools.

— In Arkansas, the legislature enacted a grant program that provides $50 million for school safety.  The Arkansas School Safety Commission, whose report provided guidance for the legislation, will continue assessing school safety in the state.  The Arkansas Criminal Justice Institute and the Arkansas Department of Education will develop rules for the grant.

— In California, officials in the Oakland Unified School District remain resolved to exclude police from their campuses after the shooting of a 13-year-old by a 12-year-old student at a middle school.  Oakland City Councilmembers are divided on whether or not a police presence at schools is a good idea.

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Safety Law News for August 30, 2022

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— In Maryland, the Court of Appeals of Maryland affirmed the denial of a student’s suppression motion involving the search of a backpack and cell phone.  After a school resource officer broke up a fight in which the student was involved, the student’s backpack dropped from his body to the ground. The officer and student reached for the backpack simultaneously; the officer picked it up first. The student then ran from the scene. The officer opened the backpack, finding a firearm, three cell phones, and the student’s school ID card.  The court ruled that the warrantless search of the backpack was permissible because it was abandoned.  The court also ruled that the officers reasonably relied on the warrant in executing the search of the cell phones.  Richardson v. Johnson.

— In Indiana, state officials have approved nearly $23 million in grants to fund school security.  The grants are awarded each year to help districts pay for school resource officers and upgrades like new equipment. This year, 425 schools have been approved to receive these funds.

— In Massachusetts, parents in the Framingham School District are requesting greater transparency in the implementation of the new school security plan.  Under the new agreement with police, city officials promised to (1) alert the community about the details of the agreement, (2) set up a process for submitting complaints about school resource officers, (3) provide data school discipline and arrests, and (4) budget data on the cost of implementation of the agreement.

— In Colorado, educators in the Denver Public Schools are showing returning students a video that recommends that students refrain from reporting campus incidents to police.  The video, which focuses on de-escalation of conflicts involving students, includes a series of recommendations.  One of the tips says to avoid the police because police can escalate, and “often treat victims as perpetrators of crimes.”

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Safety Law News for August 25, 2022

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— In California, the United States District Court refused to dismiss claims of excessive force asserted against two school resource officers who fought with a student while attempting to escort him to the administrative office.  The officers flipped the student from his back onto his stomach, handcuffed him, and took him to the administrative office.  According to one of the officers, “(y)ou turned around and you fronted me like you were going to fight me.”  The court ruled that the elements of excessive force include, “(1) the severity of the crime at issue, (2) whether the suspect poses an immediate threat to the safety of the officers or others, and (3) whether he is actively resisting arrest or attempting to evade arrest by flight.”  The court ruled that a reasonable jury could conclude that SROs’ use of force was unjustified.  “(The student) was a thirteen-year-old freshman, almost a foot shorter and 100 pounds lighter …He held a sweater in his hands, while both SRO(s) were armed and in uniform. At all times, (the student) was surrounded by numerous adults, including the SROs and …was walking toward the administrative office in compliance … even though no fight had taken place.”  Silvas v County of Riverside, EDCV192358JGBSHKX, 2022 WL 3574176 (CD Cal July 14, 2022)

— In Idaho, the school resource officers of the Cassia County School District will begin wearing rifle rated body armor.  The body armor, a gift from a fundraiser for school safety, “will handle AR 15 rounds, and even AK 47 rounds.”

— In Kentucky, all public schools are required to have a school resource officer at each school campus.  However, the mandate is unfunded.  As a result, schools are struggling to meet the requirement.

— In Pennsylvania, a comprehensive school safety plan was presented by the Philadelphia School District that creates 27 zones, around high violence middle and high schools, where uniformed officers will be present to help students leave school safely during dismissal.