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Safety Law News for June 10, 2024

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— In New York, the United States District Court held that school officials did not infringe on the First Amendment free speech rights of a student when they disciplined him for an off-campus posting on Snapchat.  The case arose out of an incident when the student, along with three fellow students, mimicked the murder of George Floyd by a police officer with a photo that, “depicts (the student) lying on the ground while his friend …kneels over him.”  The student posted the photo to his Snapchat story with the caption “Cops got another,” where it was visible “to all of his Snapchat friends—approximately 60 to 100 people, including a good amount of students at Livingston Manor High School.”  The court upheld the discipline of suspending the student from school and extracurricular activities, distinguishing the 2021 case of Mahanoy Area Sch. Dist. v. B. L. by & through Levy where the U.S. Supreme Court ruled that the suspension from a junior varsity cheerleading squad of a student based on her use of profanity in an off-campus  social media post violated the First Amendment.  The court stated that, “here, the facts are distinguishable from Mahanoy, in which the Court found no evidence in the record of the sort of ‘substantial disruption’ of a school activity or a threatened harm to the rights of others that might justify the school’s action…the Court finds not only that District personnel reasonably portended a substantial disruption given the response to the photos the same night they were posted, but also that Defendants have established actual disruption based on the events occurring at the school the day after the photo was posted.”  As a result, the First Amendment did not apply because schools have “an interest in maintaining order within its schools, promoting tolerance and respect, and ensuring students feel comfortable and secure within the school environment (and) when the impact of a student’s speech spills into school grounds in a manner so instantaneous and significant, the speech falls outside of the First Amendment’s ordinary protection.”  Leroy v. Livingston Manor Central School District

— In Washington State, a student was killed in a high school shooting in Seattle that is triggering a debate over the decision of the school board to remove campus police from the school district.  The deceased student was attempting to break up a fight.

— In Massachusetts, officials in Marion are deploying a comfort dog for students at a local elementary school.  The canine “will help with de-escalation and provide comfort to children and staff in need who may be experiencing or have experienced trauma.”

— In Kansas, the Kansas legislature introduced House Bill 2641.  Its provisions would require all school districts in the state to prohibit the use of cellphones during school hours.  “Exceptions would be made for educational purposes authorized by a teacher or administrator and to accommodate medical needs, special education commitments and emergency incidents.”

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Safety Law News for June 3, 2024

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— In New York, the Supreme Court, Appellate Division affirmed the conviction of a student of assault in second and third degrees, arising out of incident in which a 19 year old, employed as a custodian, fired a school resource officer’s weapon and shot the officer in foot during physical struggle with officer.  The appellate court, in refusing to suppress statements that the custodian made to the officer while he was in custody ruled that not every comment made by a police officer in response to an inquiry by the defendant can be said to constitute an interrogation.  Volunteered statements are admissible provided the defendant spoke with genuine spontaneity.The court held that this case involves statements made after the police officer intervened while the custodian was on campus armed with a knife and was brandishing it toward himself and others.  When taken into custody, the custodian “spoke with genuine spontaneity and the statements were not the result of inducement, provocation, encouragement or acquiescence, no matter how subtly employed.”  People v. Franco

— In North Carolina, “the Hope Mills police chief and town manager are speaking out after the Cumberland County Sheriff decided to pull resource officers and crossing guards from the town’s public schools, as well as all other towns in Cumberland County.”  The Sheriff’s decision is based on “the sheriff’s staffing concerns for his own department.”

— In Wisconsin, the legislature enacted Assembly Bill 245, requiring “the deployment of 25 police officers in Milwaukee Public Schools.  A group of students are protesting the law, seeking a campus policy compromise that will “have school resource officers stationed somewhere discreetly on campuses but away from classrooms and buildings.”

— In Maryland, officials in the Carroll County’s public schools are announcing that “arrested students almost never face criminal prosecution.”  “When a student arrest is made, the case is referred to the Department of Juvenile Services for intake. DJS determines whether to drop the case, impose consequences, or to refer the case to the State’s Attorney’s Office for criminal charges. A lot of it gets resolved at intake.”

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Safety Law News for May 28, 2024

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— In Ohio, the Court of Appeals of Ohio affirmed the ruling of a trial court that individual school employees were “not entitled to immunity as a matter of law” for injuries to students.  The affirmance involved a case of false identity, in which, two individuals with no official position were allowed onto an elementary school campus for several days.  The school policy, that requires that everyone – including law enforcement – sign in as visitors, was not followed.  “Based upon incorrect assumptions, the employees allowed (the two individuals), …to freely walk the halls …and discipline students.”  “The employees gave (the two individuals), access to students’ confidential information and students themselves with no supervision.”  The police impersonators “disciplined students by handcuffing them and making them do physical exercise. (They) yelled and cursed at students, assaulted students, arrested students, and took students from school property in a private vehicle.”  The appellate court affirmed that Ohio liability law does not apply immunity for “wanton misconduct” and “reckless conduct” by school employees.  “Wanton misconduct is the failure to exercise any care toward those to whom a duty of care is owed in circumstances in which there is great probability that harm will result… reckless conduct is characterized by the conscious disregard of or indifference to a known or obvious risk of harm to another that is unreasonable under the circumstances and is substantially greater than negligent conduct.”  There would be no immunity based upon the facts that “the employees made dangerous assumptions” and “no one questioned (their) repeated presence at (the school) or whether (they) had any authority to discipline students. None of the employees contacted law enforcement to verify (their) employment with either the Akron Police Department or the juvenile detention center.”  M.J. v. Akron City School District

— In Illinois, the Chicago Board of Education is proposing a new school safety policy.  The Whole School Safety plan, “pushes schools to embrace alternatives to traditional disciplinary practices and teach students how to understand their emotions, known as social-emotional learning.”  If enacted each school will be required to (1) Create a Whole School Safety committee made up of parents, teachers, and students; (2) Hire at least one security guard; (3) Create an emergency management plan; (4) Teach social-emotional learning; (5) Implement restorative justice practices; (6) Include training on “climate, trauma-responsive, and social and emotional learning” in professional development plans; (7) Have behavioral health teams, which are supposed to help students who are in crisis, have experienced trauma, or are in need of mental health assistance; (8) Keep all doors locked, except for bathrooms.

— In Virginia, the James City County Police Department” is restarting its Citizens Police Academy.   The academy was paused during the COVID-19 pandemic.  The curriculum of the academy includes department philosophy, uniform patrol, communications, community services, school resource officer unit, SWAT, firearm safety, marine patrol, underwater search and recovery, RADAR, traffic stops, DUI procedures, animal control, crisis negotiations, investigations, polygraph, active shooter training, crime scene investigations and techniques, use of force, officer survival and peer support.  “The program is designed to foster a better understanding between citizens and police through education and communications.”

— In Virginia, the Charlottesville School Board is preparing to vote on a proposal to bring police back to its school campuses.  The proposal, part of a Report by a working group, “would focus on diversion from the criminal justice system and would borrow elements from the world of social work to address student and family needs.”  The new partnership with the police department, endorsed by 60% of the community, will deploy “specially trained officers.”

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Safety Law News for May 13, 2024

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— In Illinois, the Appellate Court of Illinois, upheld the adjudication of a student for “driving under the influence (DUI) of drugs, namely cannabis” in violation of state law.  The student was found with a “skinny, white, rolled” object in his wallet that he told school officials was a “marijuana cigarette” after a search by an administrator after performing poorly in the road test in his drivers’ education class.  Prior to the search, the administrator, nurse, another administrator, and the teacher, who first reported the concerning behavior of the student, collaborated.  An assessment was made and a decision reached to conduct the search of the student, followed by a report to the campus school resource officer.  The SRO conducted a field sobriety test, which the student failed.  The appellate court upheld the assessment process and the sufficiency of the evidence, ruling that, “the totality of the evidence was sufficient to prove (the student) guilty beyond a reasonable doubt. First, as acknowledged by (the student) on appeal, (the student) admitted to (the administrator) that he smoked marijuana the night before and was still feeling its effects…(The student’s) admission to being under the influence was corroborated by accounts of defendant’s physical condition from individuals with varying degrees of experience dealing with people under the influence of cannabis.”  Village of Lincolnshire v. Olvera

— In North Carolina, the Randolph County Sheriff’s Office is building rapport with students through sports.  Its officers “schedule and run all of the basketball games” between officers – with school staff – against high school and middle school students.  The outreach program is in its third year.

— In West Virginia, officials in Roanoke are utilizing artificial intelligence devices to enhance campus safety.   Weapons detection systems using AI “combine powerful sensor technology with proven artificial intelligence (AI), security ecosystem integrations, and comprehensive venue analytics to ensure safer, more accurate threat detection at an unprecedented speed and volume.”  The system “can screen up to 3,600 people per hour, providing faster threat detection compared to metal detectors.”

— In Colorado, Denver officials are continuing to investigate the failure of a school administrator to collaborate after a kidnapping attempt of an elementary student. The administrator was fired after delaying for one hour the reporting of the incident to other agencies as required by policy.  The delay prevented school personnel from keeping students indoors because “teachers were not instructed to do so until about a full hour after the intrusion….(such that) students were taken outside for recess while the suspect remained at large.”  The administrator had refused to follow school policy “on more than one occasion.

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Safety Law News for May 9, 2024

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— In North Carolina, the Court of Appeals of North Carolina affirmed the juvenile adjudication of a student  for “Communicating a Threat to Commit Mass Violence on Educational Property” in violation of state law.  The student argued that “there was insufficient evidence (that he) communicated a threat to commit mass violence on educational property… (and) there was no evidence (his) statement constituted a true threat and, as such, was protected speech under the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.”  Both the trial court and the appellate court disagreed, stating that “True Threats’ encompass those statements where the speaker means to communicate a serious expression of an intent to commit an act of unlawful violence to a particular individual or group of individuals.  The speaker need not actually intend to carry out the threat. Rather, a prohibition on true threats ‘protects individuals from the fear of violence’ and from the disruption that fear engenders, in addition to protecting people ‘from the possibility that the threatened violence will occur.”  In this case, “the State’s evidence did provide evidence of the context in which (the student) alleged threat was made. The evidence showed a group of students was gathered waiting to leave their chorus class to go to lunch when (the student) made the statement that he was “going to shoot up the school.” Two student-bystanders…testified consistent with each other that they heard the statement…(and were) scared enough to report the threat right away. (Another student) testified it made him sick to his stomach.”   In Re D.R.F.

— In Indiana, the Governor “announced 474 schools were approved for the state grants…the bulk of that money is dedicated to putting more school resource officers in the schools. More than $19 million of this school safety grant will be invested in hiring more of them or paying for those already employed at the schools.”

— In West Virginia, Superintendents, principals, teachers, and police from around the state are discussing how to protect children online, believing that “kid’s lives are increasingly spent online, improving its safety regulations are more important than ever before.”  All officials are “learning about online threats to children” from the FBI and the West Virginia Department of Homeland Security.  They are being told that, “there are predators out there, there are certain groups being formed that actually prey on our children, get them to send them a picture or something that could possibly be inappropriate and hold that over their head, which causes children to have anxiety and do things that they normally would not do.”

— In New Hampshire,  an MOU between the Lebanon School District and Police Department “would provide a specially trained officer to the schools to assist in safety, educational programs and other support services — but eliminate the daily police presence in a single school building.”

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Safety Law News for May 3, 2024

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— In Colorado, the United States District Court held that summary judgment was inappropriate in a Title IX case involving student-on-student sexual harassment.  The case arose out of a series of incidents in which for several years male students would “grope, grab, or touch female students’ breasts as part of “Titty Touch Tuesday””… and slap or touch the butts of mostly female students as part of “Slap Ass Friday.””  Students tended not to report the assaults because, “it was so normalized that they assumed administrators knew it was happening.”  The court announced that, “school recipients of federal funds may be liable under Title IX for its own conduct in being deliberately indifferent to student-on-student sexual harassment…to establish school district liability under Title IX for being deliberately indifferent to student-on-student sexual harassment, a plaintiff must demonstrate that (1) an appropriate person with authority to take corrective action to end the discrimination (2) had actual knowledge of discrimination in the recipient’s programs but (3) failed adequately to respond in a manner amounting to deliberate indifference, and (4) the harassment was so severe, pervasive and objectively offensive that it deprived the victim of access to the educational benefits or opportunities provided by the school.  The court ruled that summary judgement of not appropriate because while it was “undisputed that multiple former students who attended …from 2010 through 2017…described a culture wherein male students touched female students’ breasts on Tuesdays and their butts on Fridays without consent… the parties dispute the level of knowledge of the administrators.”  A.C. as next friend S.T.C. v. Jefferson County R-1 School District

— In Virginia, a Blue Ribbon Panel on School Safety for Loudoun County Public Schools has produced a series of recommendations for protecting students.  The major take-away was the proposal for school officials to hire police officers or private security guards the 61 public elementary schools. Police are already deployed at the middle schools and high schools.  The only police presence in Loudoun’s elementary schools is through the Drug Abuse Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.) program. Other recommendations include (2) increasing security personnel coverage for after-school events; (3) making school-level participation in safety & security and threat assessment training a priority; (4) making sure that police and mental health representatives are involved in every threat assessment; (5) designating the Division of Safety & Security as a “Law Enforcement Unit” for purposes of FERPA; (6) designating a campus as an alternative school; (7)  adding “a digital analysis assessment to all serious and very serious threat assessments.”  The recommendations are now up for public review and feedback.

— In New York, the Niskayuna Central School District School Board is authorizing a outside consultant to study “the potential return of its dormant school resource officer (SRO) program.”  The Board acknowledges that, “(o)ver the course of the last month to two months, there’s been considerable advocacy from the community for an SRO program and opposed to an SRO program.”

— In Kentucky, a Report by the Tennessee Department of Education and the Tennessee Department of Safety and Homeland Security shows that “just 67% of public elementary schools and 75% of public middle and high schools” have taken advantage of the $140 million provided by the state last summer to put an armed school resource officer in every school.