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Safety Law News for April 1, 2022

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— In Pennsylvania, the Commonwealth Court of Pennsylvania ruled on appeal that a school district’s decision to expel a public high school student, based on his act of posting violent song lyrics to social media, outside of school hours and while not on school property, violated his free speech rights.  Educators concluded that the student’s speech constituted harassment, was a terroristic threat, and had disrupted the school environment.  The court ruled that the student, “did not explicitly target specific …students, let alone the broader School District community…. [such that] where a student’s properly contextualized, off-campus speech is not distinctly connected to school activities or clearly directed towards members of their educational community, a public school’s reach exceeds its constitutional grasp.”  Appeal of G.S. by & through Snyder

— In Wisconsin, students from La Crosse Central High School are planning to speak to the School District of La Crosse’s Board of Education.  Their mission is to present a petition and give board members the students’ support of school resource officers (SRO’s). This movement started over a month ago when the students learned of the District’s plan to reduce the number of officers next year.

— In Michigan, the School Safety Task Force, created by the legislature after the deadly shooting at Oxford High School late 2021, has published preliminary recommendations on school safety.  The Task Force wants schools to remove immediate threats to classrooms sooner.  This end will be served by improving communication among schools, local law enforcement, and the state’s OK2Say tip line, requiring ongoing safety training for school resource officers and other school staff, and adding a staff member in each district to oversee mental health services, security, and threat assessment.

— In New York, the Schenectady City School Board passed a resolution for the return of school resource officers (“community engagement officers”) to the schools.  “The school board said it has participated in a school resource officer pilot program in the past, and it has worked out well.”

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Safety Law News for March 23, 2022

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— In Michigan, the United States Court of Appeals, affirmed the denial of qualified immunity to an administrator and a school resource officer in an excessive force lawsuit brought by a high school student.  The student was forcibly removed from the school while attempting to reenter the building after school, dislocating and breaking his jaw. The court held that, “(the) use of force was unreasonable in violation of the Fourth Amendment. (The student) was not suspected of any serious crime, was not posing a threat at the time he was struck and was not resisting arrest. On those facts, (the officer’s) striking (the student) with such force as to break his jaw is gratuitous violence amounting to unreasonably excessive force under the Fourth Amendment…To be sure, school “administrators” have a “substantial interest in maintaining discipline in the classroom and on school grounds…(but the administrator) used an excessive amount of force to accomplish his interest.” E.W. v. Detroit Public School District

— A study by the American Psychological Association (APA) found that during the pandemic, rates of violence and aggression against K-12 school personnel were high, despite most schools being remote during the survey. A third of teachers surveyed reported they experienced at least one incident of verbal and/or threatening violence from students during COVID. Those incidents included verbal threats, cyber bullying, intimidation, and sexual harassment. More than two in five school administrators reported verbal or threatening violence from parents during the pandemic.

— In Ohio, teachers in the state are speaking out against a bill that would allow schools to more easily arm teachers in school.  In the proposed legislation (HB 99), teachers and staff would have to undergo 20 hours of training, plus four additional hours each year, 35 times less than the peace officer training requirement.

— In Michigan, state lawmakers are considering a school safety program that would put gunpowder-sniffing detection dogs into high schools around the state.  If a pilot program is successful, then officials would extend the program to every Michigan high school.  Each dog and trainer costs $80,000 per year for a school district.

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Safety Laws News for March 18, 2022

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— In Texas, the Court of Appeals of Texas, ruled that school districts in the state did not have to comply with the executive order of the Governor which prohibited local governmental entities and officials from requiring face coverings in response to the COVID-19 pandemic.  The court acknowledged that the provisions of state law, e.g., The Texas Disaster Act, strengthened the role of the governor in the case of a disaster.  But the court ruled that the provisions of the law did not includes the authority to prohibit local governmental entities and officials from implementing COVID-19 mitigation measures that the Governor views as more restrictive than necessary, such as face-covering requirements.  Greg Abbott v. La Joya Independent School District

— In Kentucky, House Bill 63 is moving through the legislature to provide incentives for schools to create school resource officer programs.  Under the provisions of the legislation, school districts would have authority to create their own campus police departments.  The proposal also includes a reporting plan from schools to the Kentucky School Safety Center in Richmond.

— In New York, the Superintendent for the Buffalo Public Schools is implementing plans to improve safety in the wake of violence that has occurred in schools.  The provisions of the plan include giving each building in the district its own emergency response plan, the use of metal detectors, and an increase in the number of school resource officers.  “(T)he district only has 10 school resource officers. The district’s new safety plan includes hiring 40 school security officers, and interviews have begun.” 

— In Kansas, the successful implementation of a school safety plan resulted in the prevention of a crisis.  A police affidavit released by the Olathe, Kansas Police Department says that a student at Olathe East High School began shooting after an administrator and school resource officer demanded to search his backpack because of rumors the student had a gun.  The student fired five shots toward the school resource before he was shot by the officer and subdued by the assistant principal.

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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.