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Safety Law News for November 27, 2017

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  • In North Carolina, students in middle school and high school across the North Carolina Piedmont region are addicted to powerful drugs.  School resource officers say that they see students getting high in class with their teacher in the room.
  • In Texas, the Athens Independent School District has terminated its own school police department.  School officials approached the city with the idea of the Athens Police Department implementing a school resource officer program.   “The district said they want to get out of the law-enforcement business so that they could focus on the education business.”
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Safety Law News for November 21, 2017

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  • In Oregon, the Court of Appeals held that the “school safety exception” to the Oregon Constitution did not permit a police officer to search a non-student, who happened to be at school during a shooting that threatened school children and staff.  The defendant had heard that a shooting had occurred at the high school where his younger sister was a student.  He rushed to the school while in possession of a handgun.  [State v. Powell]
  • In Indiana, the Court of Appeals held that two students who resisted attempts by school resource officers to search them could be prosecuted for acts constituting new offenses within the new-crime exception to the exclusionary rule.  The officers were conducting pat-down searches of students who were in a classroom where a cell phone was reported stolen.  Both juveniles assaulted the officers to prevent the searches.  [K.C. v. State]
  • In Massachusetts, the Supreme Judicial Court ruled that it was unreasonable for a police officer to search the bag of a non-student trespasser who attempted to enter the school.  The court ruled that while the officer could have arrested the trespasser, which would have allowed a search incident-to-arrest, the police lacked a reasonable belief that the defendant was armed and dangerous and, therefore, a patfrisk and search of the backpack was unreasonable.  [Commonwealth v. Villigran]
  • In Colorado, the United States District Court dismissed a civil lawsuit holding that a student’s rights were not violated when school officials expelled him and police arrested him for making threats against the school.  The student was acquitted of the charge of violating C.R.S. § 18-9-109(6), that makes it a crime to; “knowingly make or convey to another person a credible threat to … a student, school official, or employee of an educational institution.”  The court held that even if a violation did occur, the officials would not be liable based on qualified immunity.  [Wilk v. St. Vrain Valley School District].
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Safety Law News for November 13, 2017

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  • In Florida, Miami-Dade schools are implementing a new campus safety program. “Enhancing School Safety Officer Effectiveness through Online Professional and Job Embedded Coaching,” is an anti-violence program, funded by a $1 million federal grant from the National Institute of Justice.  School resource officers will be trained on social-emotional learning, trauma-informed care, cultural competence and restorative problem solving.
  • In California, the West Contra Costa Unified School District is planning to modify its school safety program.  Officials will eliminate suspensions or expulsions solely on the basis of “disruption/willful defiance,” train educators in de-escalating conflict, reduce the number of school resource officers in schools, and revise the role of the remaining officers so that student discipline will be handled solely by school personnel, not law enforcement.
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Safety Law News for November 10, 2017

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  • In c school officials, the police, and the community in Louisville are debating the school resource officer program in the schools.  Kentucky Department of Education data shows that the number of weapons found in the schools has increased while the number of assaults and arrests have nearly doubled.  Some say the police are the problem.
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Safety Law News for October 27, 2017

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  • In Indiana, six officers from Clark County’s juvenile probation program will relocate their offices to the middle and high schools in Clarksville Community Schools, Greater Clark County Schools and West Clark Community Schools.  The policy is designed to provide students on probation or at risk with better resources to succeed.
  • In California, officials in Santa Clara County are implementing an anti-bullying program that includes having school resource officers make presentations in elementary schools to arm students with knowledge about how to handle it.
  • In Maine, officials in Bar Harbor are implementing a school resource officers program.  The memorandum of understanding with the Mount Desert Island Regional School System establishes guidelines on how the schools will interact with law enforcement.
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Safety Law News for October 25, 2017

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  • In New Mexico, the Court of Appeals for the Tenth Circuit ruled that a school resource officer violated the rights of a student by arresting him under a state law that makes it illegal to “willfully interfere with the educational process” at a public school. [Scott v. City of Albuquerque].
  • In Maine, the Lewiston police chief credits youth outreach for lower crime rate.  It is the result of a cooperative effort from the Police Department, schools, social service providers, and the community.
  • In California, the U.S. District Court ruled that a social worker violated the Fourth Amendment when she arrived at the school to conduct an interview with a child to complete an abuse investigation about the parents.  Since the interview was not undertaken by school officials for the purposes of maintaining order in the school, the social worker needed a warrant, court order, parental consent, exigency, or at the very least, reasonable suspicion to seize and interview the child at school.  [Dees v. County of San Diego].