– In Texas, United States Court of Appeals, affirmed the dismissal of a lawsuit brought by a student who was suspended from the school’s football team for off-campus speech and transferred to an alternative school for the marijuana found in his vehicle during a subsequent on-campus search. The appellate court agreed with the lower court that qualified immunity was appropriately given to the educators. The student used the Internet to “send a message containing a racially-charged term to a student from a rival high school from an off-campus location following a football game.” The speech fell within the range of school-discipline speech after the U.S. Supreme Court case on the First Amendment — Mahanoy Area School District v. B.L. ex rel Levy, because it was off-campus speech directed at the school community. The appellate court also agreed that before Mahanoy no case placed educators “on notice that it would be unconstitutional to discipline (the student) for his off-campus speech…for a threat of violence apparently stated in jest.” The appellate court affirmed the dismissal of the student’s claims based on the Due Process Clause, holding that he did not have a protected property or liberty interest in being on the school’s football team, nor was the student deprived of a protected property or liberty interest when placed in an alternative education program after marijuana was found in his car. McClelland v. Katy Independent School District
— In Colorado, officials in the Denver Public Schools are continuing their resumption of collaboration with the Denver Police Department to provide school resource officers at more than a dozen campuses as soon as possible. The resumption of the school resource officers’ program comes following two campus shootings in February and March.
— In Arizona, the safety committee for the Phoenix Public Schools is recommending the return of school resource officers. The committee, after receiving feedback from “from students, parents, and staff,” is asking the school board to vote on deploying “officers at all 23 campuses” two years after the District removed the police.
— In Texas, school resource officers for the City of Irving are bonding with students while conducting a Safety Patrol Camp. The students, called “Jr. Officers,” learn how to properly fold flags, how to assist with traffic control in their school parking lots, and how to problem solve.