— In California, the United States Court of Appeals held that police did not violate the Fourth Amendment by detaining briefly parents of a student while investigating allegations that their son planned a shooting at his school that day. The appellate court affirmed the lower court ruling that the Deputies’ acted lawfully, even in the absence of reasonable suspicion, because special circumstances existed that justified a suspicionless seizure of the parents. “We are hard-pressed to imagine a more important, time-sensitive matter than preventing the unspeakable tragedy of a school shooting. Thus, while the government’s interest in detaining non-suspect witnesses begins at a low ebb, the fact that the Deputies were actively attempting to prevent a mass shooting at a school sufficiently increased the government’s interest to warrant a brief detention.” Bernal v. Sacramento County Sheriffs’ Department
— In Congress, the House of Representatives is proposing a new funding source for school safety. The Securing American Classrooms Act of 2023 would use some of the $1 billion in unspent COVID relief funds to provide grant funding for partnerships between schools and local law enforcement agencies to increase school safety.
— In Kentucky, schools are struggling to hire mandated school resource officers. Kentucky schools are required to have their own armed school resource officers. According to a Report, roughly 55% of schools did not have an SRO. The SRO is state-mandated, but not state-funded.
— In Texas, the Allen Independent School District is hiring armed guards for elementary schools and early childhood centers. Schools in Texas must put someone armed with a gun on their campus. In the Allen ISD, there were too few police officers to cover the elementary and early childhood schools. Grant money from the state will cover about half of the cost.