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Safety Law News for June 24, 2022

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— In New York, the United States Court of Appeals upheld the dismissal of an educator for making a series of inquiries concerning a potentially dangerous student at the high school.  The educator was concerned about the potential for physical harm to her child who was also enrolled at the school.  Administrators viewed the inquiries and statements as inappropriate.  Both the lower court and the appellate court rejected the First Amendment retaliation claim because (as an employee) her speech, “does not qualify for First Amendment protection.”  The courts explained that, “[t]o establish that her speech was protected, Henderson must demonstrate that it addressed a matter of public concern… (S)peech that principally focuses on an issue that is personal in nature (e.g., the safety of her son) and generally related to the speaker’s own situation —even if touching on a matter of general importance—does not qualify for First Amendment protection.” Henderson v. Greenville Central School District

— In Virginia, the Department of Criminal Justices Services Board will give $5 million to local governments across the state for school resource and security officer positions in the next fiscal year.  A school resource officer is a certified law enforcement official employed by a police department, while a school security officer is employed by the school.  The funding is part of a broader package of public safety grants — more than $37 million — going to local criminal justice programs, including gun violence prevention, victim witness, and substance abuse treatment programs.

— In California, the Orange County Board of Supervisors unanimously approved an expansion of the school resource officer program to include an officer at each school.  The recent school shooting in Texas influenced that decision to increase campus safety.

— In Oklahoma, the Bartlesville Public Schools Board of Education unanimously approved the hiring of six additional school resource officers which will place one officer in each of the district’s schools.  School officials said that the recent shootings at a school in Texas and at a medical facility in Tulsa hastened the move.

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Safety Law News for June 22, 2022

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— In Alabama, the Supreme Court of Alabama, refused to dismiss a case brought against a county school board for “negligence, wantonness, and negligent or wanton hiring” of a high school principal who assaulted a student.  The court ruled that as an agency of the State, a county board of education has Eleventh Amendment immunity from the damages claims insofar as the board was sued in their official capacities.  However, the suit could be continued insofar as the board members were sued in their individual capacities.  On remand, evidence suggests that the board knew about a pattern of sexual assaults as far back as 1992.  Ex Parte Wilcox County Board of Education

— In Delaware, the state legislature is considering a new policy that would make it illegal for police to lie to children during interrogations.   House Bill 419 has been approved by the House of Delegates.  The state Senate now takes up the proposal that is based on evidence that childrens’ brains are not equipped to handle the stress of police interrogations.  If enacted, the new policy will ban the use of deceptive tactics, such as making misleading statements about evidence or offering false promises of leniency to extract a confession or other incriminating evidence from a minor.

— In New York, the officials in the City of Rochester have agreed to an extension of the school resource officer program for the safety of the Rochester Public Schools.  The new contract includes revisions designed to “decriminalize normal student behavior” by removing the officers from participation in the school discipline of students.

— In Washington State, the Bellevue School District is launching a new version of the school resource officer program.  The revisions change the name, mission and role of the officers who will deploy on the schools.  The Community Engagement Officer Program will select and train officers to “to cultivate trusting relationships between students and officers to provide a safe environment with shared problem solving, according to the district.”

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Safety Law News for June 17, 2022

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— In Colorado, the Colorado Court of Appeals affirmed the adjudication of a student for possessing a handgun as a second-time juvenile offender and possessing a weapon on school grounds.  The court rejected the argument of the student that the search of his backpack violated his rights under the Fourth Amendment.  The court agreed with the student that the test of New Jersey v. T.L.O., (469 U.S. 325, 341 (1985)), requires that a search be “justified at its inception” with reasonable suspicion.  However, the court ruled that, “(a) search may be justified at its inception without reasonable suspicion where the record shows that the student had a substantially diminished expectation of privacy in his or her person or property.”  The School Threat Appraisal Team’s “Action and Intervention Plan,” which allowed the student to return to school after his first offense, “unequivocally contained a search requirement.”  In the Interest of J.G.

— In Tennessee, the Metro Nashville School Board is considering expanding its school resource officer program to include elementary schools.  Concerned was expressed that there were 40 SROs in the middle and high schools but none in elementary schools.  The Nashville Mayor stated that it should be “safety first, security first, (because) you can’t educate in anything less than a secure environment.”

— In Mississippi, the DeSoto County school board voted to approve $2 million in funding for school resource officers.  DeSoto County Schools’ superintendent said the additional funding will allow them to have an officer at all 39 campuses.  The superintendent said the tragic Texas school shooting in May 2022 served to “reaffirm (my) belief about the importance of having law enforcement at schools.”

— In Kentucky, the Christian County School Board approved contracts with the local sheriff and police departments to provide school resource officers for the 2022-2023 school year.  The goal is to have an officer on each of its 13 campuses.

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Safety Law News for June 14, 2022

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— In Tennessee, the Court of Appeals of Tennessee reversed and dismissed a personal injury case brought by a student who was struck in the eye by a mechanical pencil while attending a sponsored after- school program.  A classmate was flicking a pencil back and forth when it flew into the air, injuring the student.  The court stated that, in negligence lawsuits, students injured by schools “must establish (1) a duty of care owed by the defendant to the plaintiff; (2) conduct by the defendant falling below the standard of care amounting to a breach of that duty; (3) an injury or loss; (4) causation in fact; and (5) proximate or legal cause.”  The court dismissed the lawsuit because “the law, (does) not require (schools) to anticipate the countless unexpected student acts that take place each day in our schools.  Rather, we hold (schools) to the duty of protecting students from reasonably foreseeable dangerous conditions, including the dangerous acts of fellow students.” This was not a reasonably foreseeable dangerous condition.  Therefore, there was no duty of care. Hopper v. Obion County School System

— In Ohio, House Bill 99 has been enacted, reducing the hours school officials need to train to carry a gun in school.  The law reduces the training to 24 hours for initial approval.  Educators are then required to receive eight additional training hours every year afterward. They must also submit to an annual criminal records check.

— In Minnesota, the Forest Lake Area School District plans to install interior and exterior security cameras on all school buses.  The goal is to document drivers who ignore the stop-sign-arm on buses.  The cameras also will record misconduct by students.

— In Iowa, surveys showed students in the Cedar Rapids Schools felt safer after changes in the School Resource Officer program.  The most visible policy change was having the officers wear “soft” uniforms.  The most substantive change was to shift the job duties of officers away from disciplinary actions.  All data shows the positive effects of the changes.  Arrests of students dropped dramatically.  90% of High School students responded feeling “Somewhat or Very Safe” because of an SRO in the building last school year. More students also reported feeling “Very Comfortable” around an SRO, going from 23% to 45%.  And a greater percentage of students, 45% versus 22%, reported having “Very Positive Interactions” with the SRO.  Staff and family surveys showed more than 90% felt safe and positive about the SRO program.

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Safety Law News for June 6, 2022

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— In California, the California Court of Appeal affirmed the order of wardship of a 13 year-old student who was found with a gun in his backpack at school.  The appellate court agreed with the student that under California law there is a presumption of incapacity for children under 14, such that it must be shown by “clear and convincing evidence that the child appreciated the wrongfulness of the conduct when it was committed.”  But the appellate court found that “the fact that (the student) apparently revealed his possession of the firearm to another student but then denied possessing it to the school safety officer only reinforces the inference that (the student) understood the wrongfulness of his actions.”  People v. L.S., a Person Coming Under the Juvenile Court.

— In California, teachers and parents in the Fresno Unified School District are calling for increased safety measures.  Restorative justice discipline reforms are the target of the criticisms.  Parents waited for five hours at a school board meeting to get the chance to tell trustees and district officials what they want to see change at their kids’ schools.  The Fresno Teacher Association posted a letter on Facebook, citing frustration that teachers are not, “made aware of (students’) violent tendencies.”  The letter concludes that, “(w)e have only your broad words of assurances without any concrete evidence that anything is being done to improve our school’s safety. It is time for a change so we can stop feeling like we are on our own.”

— In Texas, the Governor is directing state school security and education officials to start conducting “in-person, unannounced, random intruder detection audits on school districts” to find weak access points and see how quickly staff can enter a school building without being stopped.  The order comes after the Uvalde school shooting that left 19 children and two adults dead.  The Governor is asking the legislature to convene a pair of special legislative committees to address the issues of school safety.

— In Florida, Clay County officials want to keep the property tax for school safety.  The property tax increase, passed in 2018 for 4 years only after the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School campus shooting, is set to expire. The school district used the additional funds to create its own school police force, putting an officer at every school. County voters will decide.

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Safety Law News for June 1, 2022

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— In Illinois, the Appellate Court of Illinois reversed the judgment of the trial court and remanded for trial a lawsuit brought by parents of a 10-year-old whose fingers were amputated by a roller gate fence at the elementary school playground.  The lower court ruled that the roller gate fence was an open and obvious danger to a 10-year-old child such that educators had no duty to protect the student.  The appellate court disagreed, ruling that whether a dangerous condition is open and obvious is a question of fact to be decided at trial.  It stated that, “when considering whether a danger is open and obvious to a reasonable child of similar age and experience, it is not just the physical instrument or landscape at issue, but also the way a child intends to interact with them.”  Therefore, dismissal was improper because, “a jury might reasonably find that (the student’s) failure to appreciate the risks associated with the instant roller gate fence was typical for a child of similar age and experience.”  Wright v. Waukegan Community Unit School District 60

— In Texas, school officials in rural Medina County are asking the Commissioners Court to consider funding six school resource officers for each school district in the county.  They are also considering arming staff members to solve the delay problem in receiving police assistance in an active shooter incident.

— In Kansas, officials in Saint George are placing greater emphasis on its Rapid Response and Deployment Policy 411.  The policy reinforces the jurisdiction’s commitment to protect children by requiring “officers (to) take immediate action, if reasonably practicable while requesting additional assistance” in a school shooting… “(rather than) wait for additional resources to arrive at the scene before they hunt down and eliminate any threat posed to children.”

— In Indiana, House Bill 1093 has been enacted.  It requires all school resource officers to receive specific training by next summer, eliminating a gap in the previous law that allowed untrained officers to patrol schools.