— In California, the Court of Appeal of California affirmed the dismissal of a lawsuit for failing to protect a middle school student from sexual abuse by a teacher and for breach of the mandatory duty to report suspected abuse under the Child Abuse and Neglect Reporting Act. The appellate court agreed that schools “have a duty to protect students from sexual abuse by school employees, even if the school does not have actual knowledge of a particular employee’s history of committing, or propensity to commit, such abuse.” However, the court ruled that educators could not be liable because, “here was no evidence that any school district employee knew facts from which a reasonable person in a like position would have suspected that (the teacher) had sexually abused student.” Doe v. Lawndale Elementary School District
— In Indiana, the South Bend Community School Corporation voted to continue its school resource officer program. The 4-3 vote was influenced by a survey of students, employees and the community, in which 77.7% were very positive or somewhat positive of the policy.
— In Virginia, the Harrisonburg School Board unanimously voted to keep school resource officers in its schools. The SRO Task Force, made up of teachers, parents, and community members and leaders, revised the Memorandum of Understanding (MOU) with local police to implement changes in the role of the campus officers.
— In Washington D.C., government officials are providing funding of $4.3 Million to expand the Safe Passage Program. The program creates Safe Passage Safe Blocks (SPSB) supervised by adults placed on mapped routes to support student safety as students travel to and from school.