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Safety Law News for July 3, 2023

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— In New York, the Supreme Court, Appellate Division, refused to dismiss and imposed sanctions on school officials for “manifest violation of its discovery obligations,” in a lawsuit brought by a student injured when “while exiting the school building held up her hand to stop the door, two fingers on her right hand were caught, and the top portion of one of those fingers was severed.”  On the day after the incident, the school acknowledged the existence of “video evidence depicting the accident.”  The trial court directed the school to produce the surveillance video.  It was not produced for nearly two years and the school “did not offer any reason or explanation for their delay in producing the video recording.”  The appellate court held that, “by withholding the surveillance video until the (student) cross-moved for discovery sanctions, after the papers supporting and opposing the (school’s) summary judgment motion had already been served and filed, the (school) deprived the (student) of the opportunity to attempt to use the surveillance video to raise a triable issue of fact.”  C. K. v. City of New York.

— In Delaware, House Bill 201, passed by the General Assembly makes bringing a firearm onto a Safe School and Recreation Zone a felony.  The policy contains an exception for police officers, school constables, and active-duty military acting in an official capacity.

— In Tennessee, the state has launched applications for grant funding for school resource officers. The $140-million funding pool will provide $75,000 for each officer. Each SRO will need police certification plus 40 hours of SRO training and an additional 16 hours annually.

— In Ohio, the Talawanda school district is cutting school resource officers in all of its elementary schools at the start of the 2023 academic year.  The district decided to abolish the three positions following budget problems.

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Safety Law News for June 30, 2023

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— In California, the California Court of Appeal held that a school district had a duty to preserve video that captured events surrounding the sexual assault of high-school student.  The student’s lawsuit alleged negligence, sexual harassment, and negligent infliction of emotional distress after being sexually assaulted by two other students in a school bathroom.  During discovery, the student-victim learned that video of the incident had been erased by school officials.  The court ruled that litigation arising from the assault was reasonably foreseeable at time video was erased, and thus school officials had duty to preserve video.  The court denied immunity for the school because, “a wide range of public school employees were mandated reporters and knew the video might be relevant to a lawsuit,… to criminal or juvenile proceeding, or to expulsion of alleged perpetrators.”  Moreover, the video showed school staff failed to enforce school policy that staff were to unlock the restroom for only one student at a time.”  Victor Valley Union High School District v. Superior Court of San Bernardino County

— In Michigan, the City of Flat Rock has implemented its school resource officer program.  The MOU between Flat Rock Community Schools and the Flat Rock Police Department deploys an officer inside Flat Rock High School.  Even so, the officer will spend time in the feeder schools.  The officer will also teach classes on topics such as vaping, social media awareness, bullying, drugs and many other topics pertinent to children and teens of their age groups.

— In Illinois, the Chicago Board of Education has voted to approve a new $9.4 billion budget for the 2023-2024 academic year and renew a contract with the Chicago Police Department to provide school resource officers in schools.  The district is revising its MOU with the police department “to better define an SRO’s responsibilities and to give school leaders more control over the officers in their buildings.”

— In Florida, an ex-school resource officer accused of failing to confront a shooter who killed 17 people at Florida’s Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in 2018 was acquitted of child neglect and negligence.  A jury has acquitted him on all counts of a prosecution that accused him of taking cover instead of confronting the gunman and protecting children.

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Safety Law News for June 26, 2023

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— In California, the California Court of Appeal reversed the summary dismissal of a claim against a school for negligence in hiring, training, supervising, and retaining a teacher who became romantically and sexually involved with a student.  In remanding the case back to the trial court the appellate court held that “a school district and its employees have a special relationship with the district’s pupils, a relationship arising from the mandatory character of school attendance and the comprehensive control over students exercised by school personnel.”  The appellate court went on to declare that, “(b)ecause of this special relationship, … the duty of care owed by school personnel includes the duty to use reasonable measures to protect students from foreseeable injury at the hands of third parties acting negligently or intentionally.”  Finally, the appellate court announced “relevant policy considerations” to control the issue of liability:  (1) the foreseeability of harm to the plaintiff, (2) the degree of certainty that the plaintiff suffered injury, (2) the closeness of the connection between the defendant’s conduct and the injury suffered, (3) the moral blame attached to the defendant’s conduct, (4) the policy of preventing future harm, (5) the extent of the burden to the defendant and consequences to the community of imposing a duty to exercise care with resulting liability for breach, (6) and the availability, cost, and prevalence of insurance for the risk involved.”  A.P. v. Orange Unified School District

— In California, school resource officers from the Paso Robles Police Department have been busy this summer continuing to support local youth by participating and assisting in local summer schools, specialty training, the Junior Giants League, as well with as San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office at its annual youth summer camps.

— In Colorado,  a judge has ordered the Denver Public Schools Board of Education to release the recording of an executive session in March in which the board discussed returning police officers to some schools as resource officers for the rest of the school year.  The Board of Education’s decision came the day after a student at East High School allegedly shot two school administrators before fleeing, and members unanimously voted to return school resource officers without public debate following a five-hour secret session.  Denver Public Schools administrators told board members that as many as four out of every five students surveyed wanted armed Denver Police officers back on campuses.

— In Tennessee, the Governor is inviting local law enforcement agencies and schools to apply for nearly $200 million in grant funding to further strengthen security at Tennessee schools.  The two grant programs include significant funding to support placing a full-time, armed school resource officer (SRO) at every public school and make physical security improvements at public and non-public schools across Tennessee.

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Safety Law News for June 23, 2023

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–  In Florida, the District Court of Appeal of Florida, reversed the denial of a petition for a risk protection order requested by a school resource officer who stopped a student in possession of a firearm on school grounds. Inexplicably, the lower court denied the petition despite the facts that a search of the student’s backpack revealed a Glock 42 .380 caliber handgun, a loaded magazine, and two boxes of ammunition.  The appellate court reversed, ruling that after the 2018 shooting at the Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, the legislature enacted a mandatory policy to “address the crisis of gun violence, “by providing law enforcement and the courts with the tools to enhance public safety by temporarily restricting firearm possession …when there is evidence of a threat of violence, and by promoting school safety and enhanced coordination between education and law enforcement entities.”  The appellate court held that under the provisions of the statute, “a court should not wait for either threats of or actual violence” (when) “presented with a student who had a pending aggravated assault prosecution, who appeared at a location where he knew weapons were prohibited, and who was armed with a handgun and enough ammunition to conduct a mass shooting.”  Polk County Sheriff’s Office. v. T.J.B.

— In Tennessee, new policies on training require that school officers go through active shooter training before they can protect schools.  Under House Bill 322, “every licensed armed security guard who provides security or patrol services in a public school, public charter school, private school, or church-related school” must have at least eight hours of active shooter training.  Aspects of the training will equip the officers on “how to look for (a) suspect, how to safely search rooms, (and) when they encounter a suspect, (how) to neutralize them if (the) suspect didn’t give up.”

— In Oregon, the Beaverton School Board has unanimously approved a plan to extend the presence of police officers in its schools and assume increasing responsibility for paying for the program.  

— In Kentucky, the Clark County Sheriffs’ Office is supplying a life-saving device to all patrol units and school resource officers.  The device, called a “De-choker,” is designed to clear blocked airways quickly.  The decision to use them “came after a deputy experienced a choking incident that came close to being fatal.”

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Safety Law News for June 20, 2023

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–  In Missouri, the Missouri Court of Appeals applied immunity to dismiss a lawsuit against a school district brought by a former student who was sexually assaulted on school grounds by a classmate while attending the school.  Applying state law, the court held that “a school district is generally protected from liability for negligent acts under the doctrine of sovereign immunity unless an exception to sovereign immunity applies or the public entity waives its immunity through the procurement of liability insurance covering tort claims.”  In the latter scenario, “immunity is waived only to the extent of and for the specific purposes covered by the insurance purchased.”  The court ruled that, “whether an insurance policy waives sovereign immunity is expressly dictated, and limited, by the terms of the insurance policy.”  Here, immunity applied in the lawsuit because the school district was covered by two insurance policies, but “both policies expressly disclaimed any waiver of sovereign immunity.”  State ex rel. Sch. Dist. of Kansas City 33 v. Zhang

— In Texas, collaboration between City of Nederland and the Nederland Independent School District will deploy a school resource officer for all schools in the district.  There is a cost-sharing component to the agreement. The city would provide 100 percent of the cost of the officers for Aug. 1, 2023. to July 31, 2024, and again from Aug. 1, 2024, to July 31, 2025.  After that the cost is split.

— In California, a Report by the Orange County Grand Jury found Orange County schools are “doing a good job” in maintaining safe campuses for students in case of a school shooting, though had numerous recommendations for improvement.  Recommendations include assessing the need for additional school resource officers, reaching out to appropriate community partners to facilitate funding for more officers, and improving building and equipment infrastructure.

— In Colorado, school resource officers will return to Denver Public Schools after the school board voted to reverse a decision it made in 2020.  The board’s decision on followed months of intense debate about how to best protect schools from violence.  Educators found that “since the board removed school resource officers, there has been a significant rise in real and fake guns found in schools.”

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Safety Law News for June 15, 2023

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–  In New York, the Supreme Court, Appellate Division affirmed the refusal by the lower court  to dismiss a case brought by parents of a child who was injured during the school recess period.  The court, ruled that “(s)chools are under a duty to adequately supervise the students in their charge and they will be held liable for foreseeable injuries proximately related to the absence of adequate supervision.” The affirmance reflects a continuing judicial shift toward fuller discovery and trial of student injury claims and away from presumptive dismissals.  Under prior case law, schools were the beneficiary of an element of the duty to supervise that supported dismissals, e.g., “schools are not to be held liable ‘for every thoughtless or careless act by which one pupil may injure another.”  Here, the court ruled that the deposition testimony of two teachers who supervised the students during recess, “failed to establish its prima facie entitlement to judgment as a matter of law.”  L. S. v. Massapequa Union Free Sch. District

— In Tennessee, the Nashville Police Department is working to fill its school resource officer positions for Nashville schools after roughly 30% of them remained unfilled at the end of the school year.  In Nashville, the SROs will be in addition to the existing safety and security department and campus support staff that helps during drills, and also aids teachers and staff who need help in emergency situations that pose a safety risk.

— In Texas, Decatur School District officials plan to continue its school resource officer program, even as it implements a program to allow teachers to carry guns in school.  The Guardian Plan, authorized by state law, allows certain authorized employees to carry a gun on campus.

— In Virginia, the Loudoun County School Board approved a new Memorandum of Understanding with the county’s sheriff’s office and the Leesburg Police Department.  The revised MOU changes how its school resource officers will assist educators in responding to campus sexual assault and domestic abuse investigations.