— In Pennsylvania, the United States District Court, refused to dismiss a case involving allegations that a teacher “repeatedly sexually abused” a student. The claims, based upon “42 U.S.C. § 1983, Title IX, and Pennsylvania negligence law,” had the gravity of denying immunity for educators and establishing liability for the school district because “on this record, a reasonable jury could conclude that the District’s manner of responding to repeated concerns about (the teacher’s) conduct and boundary violations amounted to a well-settled practice.” The court continued to declare that dismissal was inappropriate because “this practice reflected deliberate indifference to the risk of teacher sexual misconduct.” The dispositive evidence in the case was the HR Director for the school district who “testified, unequivocally, that the system designed to protect students was not functioning as intended. She concluded that progressive discipline did not “appear” to have occurred, that the District lacked “fidelity” in responding to repeated concerns, and that administrators repeatedly “started over” rather than escalating consequences. In her words, the system was “not working”—and whether to credit that testimony is a question for the jury.” The court concluded that “the record also includes evidence that key misconduct documents were kept out of the personnel file, undermining the District’s ability to identify patterns and escalate responses.” Calderaio v. Central Bucks School District(E.D. Pa. Feb. 10, 2026).
— In Maryland, “Montgomery County Public Schools will be testing an artificial intelligence weapons detection system pilot program at three schools.” School officials say that “the system picks … up in real time and notifies an administrator or a nurse or whoever is the right person for the right job to be notified and triage the situation.”
— In Congress, HR 6809 has been introduced to “establish national school safety standards” for protecting campuses. The provisions of the legislation include “silent panic alarms that directly notify law enforcement during emergencies. The legislation authorizes “the Federal School Safety Clearinghouse to conduct research and tests on technology to help protect children in schools and districts across the nation.”
— In Ohio, school officials in the Springfield City School District are implementing a policy to “sweep all buildings before and after school each day.” The policy is in response to “threats were made against several district buildings and other locations throughout the city.”