— In South Dakota, the United States Court of Appeals affirmed the denial of qualified immunity to a teacher who was sued by parents for restraining and secluding students in a special education program. The court held the teacher’s habit of placing a student in a 10 feet by 10 feet room for rule breaking, holding the door shut until the student was able to “demonstrate calm behavior and complete several task baskets,” was a seizure. This permitted the parents to assert a claim based on the Fourth Amendment’s prohibition on unreasonable searches and seizures. The court held that while “an ordinary school timeout is not a Fourth Amendment seizure… dragging students, confining them in locked or barricaded areas, and barring them from leaving on pain of further physical intervention (was) severe enough to implicate the Constitution.” Applying the reasonableness test of New Jersey v. T.L.O., 469 U.S. 325 (1985), the court affirmed the denial of both qualified immunity and the teacher’s motion to dismiss the case. “Because (the teacher) substantially departed from accepted principles when restraining and secluding the students, she violated clearly established federal rights.” Doe v Aberdeen School District
— In California, a survey by Stride, Inc., is reporting that many parents are concerned about safely sending their children back to their local public school in-person and considering other options. Over half (52 percent) of parents or guardians with children enrolled in public school would prefer enrolling them in private school.
— In Ohio, the Governor DeWine announced $47 million in grants will be awarded to schools across the state to fund safety-related expenses. Schools will receive up to $50,000 each in grant funding to help cover safety-related expenses like security cameras, automatic door locks and exterior lighting. The Governor said that “helping schools pay for important security improvements is just one component of our comprehensive school safety approach that also supports the mental wellbeing of our kids and the work of local law enforcement to prevent crime.”
— In Arkansas, the North Little Rock School District is installing new technology as part of a $726,000 initiative from the district to improve security. The technology includes weapons detectors that set off an alarm for weapons and large knives, but not for smaller metallic items such as keys. New video technology will give security guards better real‐time control over the school’s cameras and footage. New software will screen all visitors and volunteers, conduct background checks and keep track of how long they should be at any given school.