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Safety Law News for October 7, 2022

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— In Florida, the United States Court of Appeals denied qualified immunity to a school resource officer who, while intervening in a argument between a student and his mother, grabbed the student’s face, shoved him in the chest, and threw him to the ground using an “armbar” technique, holding him down for over three minutes.  The lower court had ruled that the SRO had probable cause to arrest the student for pushing his mother and, therefore, had qualified immunity as to the false arrest, battery, and excessive force claims.  The appellate court held that as to the excessive force and battery claims “unprovoked force against a non-hostile and non-violent suspect who has not disobeyed instructions violates that suspect’s rights under the Fourth Amendment.”  The appellate court also held that, the SRO’s “decision to start the physical confrontation was unrelated to any law enforcement need to restrain or arrest (the student).”  Richmond v Badia.

— In Alabama, officials in Daphne are confiscating more electronic vapes and e-cigarettes brought to campus by students.  The devices often contain drugs rather than nicotine.  The police are beginning to arrest students who possess the devices containing THC.

— In Tennessee, the Governor signed an Executive Order to promote school safety.  Elements of the Order include, An increase in periodic audits of Tennessee local school security assessments and school safety plans, additional training for school personnel, and more frequent visits of school campuses by the Tennessee Highway Patrol.

— In Wisconsin, the Wauwatosa School Board met with parents to discuss the role of police officers in schools after an increase in violence.  There were several fights and acts of violence throughout the district, prompting a two-hour discussion of how police officers will act to quell violence.

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Safety Law News for September 30, 2022

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— In Michigan, the United States District Court, ruled that an Instagram account created off-campus by a student, that targeted, threatened, and harassed specific teachers and a student, was not protected speech.  The court, in upholding the school discipline of a ten-day suspension for his involvement in setting up the Instagram account to impersonate a teacher, held that the suspended student knew that the site functioned as a platform through which other students made harassing posts. The court also found that the recent U.S. Supreme Court case of Mahanoy Area School District v. B.L. ex rel. Levy, 141 S.Ct. 2038, 2044 (2021), did not protect the student because, “the Mahanoy court listed several types of off-campus behavior that may call for school regulation, including serious or severe bullying or harassment targeting particular individuals and threats aimed at teachers or other students.”  Kutchinski v. Freeland Community School District

— In Texas, families of survivors from the May 2022 Robb Elementary School shooting filed a civil lawsuit against law enforcement officials and the Uvalde school district.  The lawsuit accuses the officials and the gun manufacturers and sellers of significant failures and negligence that enabled the gunman to carry out the shooting.  It seeks unspecified damages for intentional infliction of emotional distress.  Other families are beginning to protest outside the school district’s headquarters demanding accountability and an investigation into the incident.

— In Massachusetts, school resource officers from the Seekonk Police Department are deploying a Labrador as a comfort dog.  The policy of providing students with frequent encounters with comfort dogs is spreading across school districts.  Often called “therapy dogs,”  the canines assist students who have anxiety, who have experienced trauma, or who have other special needs. 

— In Connecticut, officials in Westport are collaborating with local organizations to set up a voluntary registry for family and friends of people with mental health challenges, such as schizophrenia, who may panic or seem violent when approached by police. The registry allows relatives or friends to flag anyone who might benefit from additional support — and provide information about how to best de-escalate any situations with them.  Police officers are officers are receiving training focusing on dealing with mental health and substance abuse issues.

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Safety Law News for September 27, 2022

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— In California, the California Court of Appeal affirmed the dismissal of a lawsuit brought by parents whose children were in a school classroom when the husband of the teacher entered the room, shot and killed his wife, a student, and himself in front of the class.  The court agreed with the school district that these actions were unforeseeable.  Therefore, although schools have a duty to take reasonable steps to protect students, the school’s safety requirements,  including registration requirements for school visitors who are considered outsiders, and other aspects of visitor/outsider access to school grounds, played no role in the incident from which liability could be based.  C.I. v. San Bernardino City Unified School District

— In Wisconsin, the Wisconsin Department of Justice Office of School Safety released the 2021-2022 Annual Report for Speak Up, Speak Out, a statewide confidential reporting system.  The platform is designed to allow students, school staff, and community members to share information concerning potential school violence.  The Report reports a15.2% percent increase in tips, receiving 136 potentially life-saving tips.  Bullying and suicide threats were the two most reported tips.

— In Iowa, the Lewis Central Community School District Board of Education voted to tighten its policies on tobacco and e-cigarettes on school grounds.  Under the new policy, students found in possession of tobacco or vapes will be referred to the police.  Previously, schools were confiscating vapes and tobacco from students and imposing school discipline.

— In Indiana, officials in rural Shelby County school district will arm its staff with guns under a new school safety response team.  Staff members who volunteer will receive training and firearms.

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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.