Safety Law News for November 20, 2015

  • In South Carolina, the State Superintendent has established a statewide Safe Schools Taskforce. The goal of the group is to establish best practice for student discipline and training for educators on school resource officers on how to ensure a safe environment.
  • In Oregon, the Oregon Task Force on School Safety released its report containing strategies to more effectively respond to school violence and active-shooter situations. Recommendations include school tip lines, access to school floor plans and a state-funded statewide threat assessment system to identify and help students who present a potential risk for violence.

Safety Law News for November 13, 2015

  • In California, the Bear Valley Unified School District released a student survey that indicates that the Positive Behavioral Interventions and Supports Program is working to improve the school climate. In 2010, for example, 47 percent of students said they felt safe or very safe at school. By 2014 that number had risen to 67 percent.
  • In New York City, school officials reported an increase in weapons in city schools. 462 weapons were confiscated in and around campus in a four-month period.

Safety Law News for November 10, 2015

  • In Virginia, the Bristol City Public School District plans to have SROs in every school by 2016.
  • In Colorado, officials say that keeping drugs out of schools has become a real challenge. Alcohol, marijuana and prescriptions pills continue to be the top three abused substances seen in schools.
  • In New York, officials in the Orchard Park and Hamburg school districts are training faculty and staff to protect students in active-shooter scenarios.
  • Motorola will provide $420 million in interest-free financing to enable school to communicate more directly with first responders to emergencies. Grants from the SchoolSafetyFund will allow governments and school districts to buy equipment provided by SchoolSafe Communications, which produces Web-enabled, two-way radio-based systems that allow greater and faster links between school and public safety radio systems.

Safety Law News for November 3, 2015

Safety Law News For October 27, 2015

  • In Florida, the Manatee County School District will spend almost $1.5 million for a school resource officers program. The program includes at least one SRO at each of the high schools and middle schools with shared coverage of most of the elementary schools.
  • In Alaska, school disciplinary data from the Anchorage schools shows that educators suspended males at a rate nearly three times greater than that of female students. Black students and students with disabilities were suspended at a rate double that of all students.
  • In Texas, officials in the Longview ISD plan on utilizing a new security device from called the ProV2. It’s a handheld device that provides at least three steps to diffuse tense situations on campus and uses Bluetooth technology to call administrators or 911.

Safety Law News for October 23, 2015

  • In Minnesota, teachers from the Rosemount-Apple Valley-Eagan School District are taking part in a four-week Teachers Academy with local law enforcement authorities. The program is meant to give educators preparedness for school violence. The sessions cover topics from the use of force to surveying a building for suspects.
  • In New York City, law enforcement officials are expressing concerns over the decision by the Department of Education to remove metal detectors from some of the 80 schools that use the devices. During the 2013-2014 academic year, the NYPD reported that 1,200 firearms, knives, box cutters and other weapons were confiscated at schools.