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Safety Law News for March 14, 2022

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— In Colorado, Colorado Court of Appeals ruled that a school resource officer violated the rights of a student by seizing and searching the student after receiving a tip that the student had been seen firing a gun in a social media video.  The court ruled that the anonymous tips about potential school safety concerns, “(were) insufficient to provide reasonable suspicion to justify (the) search of defendant’s backpack, which produced marijuana and drug paraphernalia.”  The court rejected the argument of the school that the student had a history of misbehavior and of bringing drugs to school, ruling that the “school officer must have a particularized and objective basis for suspecting (a gun).”  People In Int. of C.C-S.

— In New York,  officials in Buffalo are revising their school safety policies in the wake of a spate of incidents.  The teachers’ union is criticizing recent school discipline reforms, reporting that, “it’s unacceptable that we’re letting the small minority of students commit these violent acts.”  A 14-year-old female student attacked a teacher, two elementary students were involved in a stabbing assault, and violent incidents occurred at the high school involving guns.  The teachers union issued a vote of no-confidence in the Buffalo Public Schools superintendent, citing the safety concerns.  The superintendent resigned.

— In Mississippi, the Mississippi Department of Education has announced that 135 school districts have chosen to receive the new health, school safety platform, “nSide health.”  The web-based platform provides surveillance cameras, programming for a 360-degree live, virtual walkthrough of a school to provide situational awareness in emergencies, a mobile app for notification of emergencies and to notify staff and emergency responders, and assistance with creating and managing emergency operations.

— In Texas, official for the DeSoto ISD cancelled classes to reevaluate school safety policies after a violence involving a substitute teacher and a student.  School officials have announced that when students return, every school will have staff monitoring hallways and common areas, employees with the district’s student support services department will now move from district headquarters to campuses to provide faster response, and students will not be allowed to use cell phones, earbuds and headphones during the school day.

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Safety Law News for March 4, 2022

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— In New York, the New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division, refused to dismiss a lawsuit brought by a student who alleged that the school failed to notify law enforcement and other appropriate local agencies of sexual abuse by a teacher. The court ruled that the lower court properly refused to dismiss the case because of the actions of school officials who acknowledged the student’s complaints against the teacher, investigated the claims, and still failed to report as required by law. BL Doe 4 v. Fleming

— In New York, the New York City Schools Chancellor is implementing new policies in reaction to data that 120,000 families have left the NYC public school system over the past five years. The Chancellor declared that the district had “broken the trust for our families. We gotta build that trust back,” emphasizing “completely dysfunctional” results and “dismal proficiency rates for black and brown students.”  One policy shift is to place more emphasis on school safety, rehiring over 1,000 school safety officers to deal with a dramatic increase in weapons brought to class.

— In Virginia, the Virginia House of Delegates agreed to a Senate amendment on school safety legislation. House Bill 4 would require schools to report misdemeanor sexual battery, stalking and oral threats to school personnel and threats against the school. Prior law gave schools discretion in reporting misdemeanor offenses. As amended, educators retain discretion in reporting misdemeanor threats from special needs students.

— In Nebraska, the University of Nebraska Public Policy Center is partnering with Boys Town to evaluate and expand the Safe2HelpNE school reporting system.  Safe2HelpNE is a centralized reporting system for students, teachers and others to report school safety concerns. The Safe2HelpNE reports is administered by Boys Town, who communicate with a school’s threat assessment team for validation and response.  The goal of Safe2HelpNE is de-escalating crises, stopping threats before action and minimizing interaction with law enforcement.

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Safety Law News for March 1, 2022

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— In New York, the New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division, refused to dismiss a lawsuit brought by a student who alleged that the school failed to notify law enforcement and other appropriate local agencies of sexual abuse by a teacher.   The court ruled that the lower court properly refused to dismiss the case because of the actions of school officials who acknowledged the student’s complaints against the teacher, investigated the claims, and still failed to report as required by law.  BL Doe 7 v. Fleming

— In Iowa, Cedar Rapids schools are reporting a 70% drop in student arrests since changes to school resource officer program.  Both educators and school resource officers are implementing restorative justice principles.  Even so, as scholarship research predicted, even with a more than 70 percent reduction in student arrests, more Black students are being removed from campus than white students.

— In New York,  school officials in Green Island, a village in Albany County, moved to on-line virtual classes after a spate of violence in the schools.  Educators plan on adding a second school resource officer, QR codes to allow students to anonymously report bullying and stricter guidelines governing the use of hall passes and phones.

In New York, students in the Buffalo have been learning from home since a 14-year-old boy was stabbed and a security guard was shot.  When classroom learning resumes, every student will be searched by security guards using hand-held metal detectors until the gate-version metal detectors arrive.

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Safety Law News For February 23, 2022

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— In New York, the New York Supreme Court, Appellate Division, affirmed a lawsuit brought by a student who alleged that the school failed to notify law enforcement and other appropriate local agencies of sexual abuse by a teacher.   The court ruled that the lower court properly refused to dismiss the case because, “a school, in assuming physical custody and control over its students, effectively takes the place of parents and guardians,” and “owes a common-law duty to adequately supervise its students.”  Further, the court noted that, “discovery is necessary for a full disclosure,” of the actions of school officials who acknowledged the student’s complaints against the teacher, investigated the claims, and still failed to report as required by law.  Visiko v. Fleming

— In Virginia, HB873H1 has been passed in the Virginia House of Delegates that would require every public school to have a school resource officer.  The proposal provides that local school boards would be prevented from, “granting any school board a waiver from such requirement but permits the Board of Education to grant a partial waiver to allow the sharing of a single school resource officer or school security officer by two different public schools that (a) are adjoining or are within close proximity to each other and (b) share facilities such as parking.”  The mandate is unfunded by the state, requiring each jurisdiction to cover the costs of deploying the police officers.

— In Nebraska, anonymous reports are on the rise with new Nebraska school safety hotline, Safe2Help Nebraska.  The system allows students, staff and community members a way to anonymously report concerning behavior.  Trained counselors receive the tip reports and gather as much information as they can.  Reports about suicide are the most common, followed by bullying and drugs.

In Virginia, both houses of the legislature have approved HB4.  The Governor has agreed to sign it, requiring schools to report misdemeanors that occur on school grounds.  The law will remove the discretion schools had to report students to law enforcement for misdemeanor-level offenses.  The provisions of the law will also require that parents receive notice when their children are victimized by unlawful behavior on campus.

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Safety Law News for February 16, 2022

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In Georgia, the United States District Court, ruled that in the school setting, “bystander liability” for Fourth Amendment violations may be applied to school officials who witness an unreasonably long detention in a school setting.  A high school administrator was present during an incident in which a student was removed from class by police officers, taken to an administrative office, and handcuffed to a file cabinet and chair for approximately seven hours.  A constitutional liability lawsuit based on 42 U.S.C. § 1984 was appropriate because, the administrator “had the power to prevent the prolonged detention.” Smith v. City of Atlanta

— In Indiana, House Bill 1093 has been introduced to require all police who regularly work inside public schools to receive training on adolescent brain development, how to interact with students with disabilities and understanding racial biases. Under current state law, many police officers are not receiving training because of the narrow definition of school police.  The proposed law defines “school resource officer” to include, “any law enforcement officer who is assigned to one or more school corporations or charter schools during school day hours.”

— In Wisconsin, House Bill 969 has been introduced to require school districts statewide to hire a school resource officer if the district reports 100 or more violent incidents and at least 25 arrests in one semester.  Funding for the police would come, in part, from the American Rescue Plan Act COVID-19 relief funds.

— In Ohio, teachers and support staff for the Columbus City Schools are urging the school board to make schools safer.  Representatives for the teachers’ union say, “our teachers are afraid of coming into some buildings. We have people who are resigning because of unsafe conditions.”  Columbus City Schools, the largest school district in the state of Ohio, has no school resource officers.

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Safety Law News for February 9, 2022

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–  In Pennsylvania, the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania held that a School District’s decision to expel a student for posting violent song lyrics on Snapchat violated his constitutionally protected right to free speech.  The School District expelled in the belief that the student’s post “constituted harassment, was a terroristic threat, and had disrupted the school environment.”  The court ruled that in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court case of Mahanoy Area School District v. B.L. by & through Levy, the speech of the student was immune to school discipline.  First, the student’s post, “did not explicitly target specific (school) students, let alone the broader School District community.”  Second, the student, “posted at a time when he was neither at (school ) nor engaged in school-related activities.”  Third, “mere undifferentiated fear or apprehension of disturbance is not enough to overcome the right to freedom of expression.”  Appeal of G.S. by & through Snyder

— In Kentucky, House Bill 63, is receiving bi-partisan support to improve safety in schools.  The legislation would require schools to have school resource officers inside schools. School districts would be required to report to Kentucky’s school security marshal if they cannot have officers on every campus and develop plans to address such shortages.

— In Connecticut, the Superintendent of the Norwich Public Schools is implementing an administrative take-over of a middle school in the wake of “persistent student behavioral issues.”  Effective immediately, the school disciplinary rules include a reinstatement of after-school detentions and in-school and out-of-school suspensions.  

— In Florida, two proposals to limit the use of restraints on students are being introduced in the legislature.  HB 235 and SB 390 prohibit school personnel from using a “mechanical restraint” on students, except if they are school resource officers, school safety officers, school guardians or security guards.