In Georgia, the United States District Court dismissed a discrimination lawsuit brought by a student who, after being suspended for fighting in school, was handcuffed and restrained by a school resource officer after refusing to remain in the administrative office until he could be escorted to where his parents would pick him up. The court ruled that the allegations of discrimination based on the claim that school discipline policy targeted black students were invalid in the absence of proof that “similarly situated individuals of a different race” were treated differently. The court ruled that no policies of the school or the school police department encouraged officials to discipline African American students in a discriminatory manner. B.T. by & through Jackson v. Battle
— In Vermont, legislators have introduced competing proposals regarding police in schools. Senate Bill 76 is designed to expand school resource officer programs by funding $1 million each year for the next four years to encourage schools to acquire one or more police officers. Senate Bill 63 would ban the use of school resource officers entirely.
— In Kentucky, the Daviess County Public Schools created its own police department to handle security at the schools. But school officials have decided to withhold student information from its officers. Officers will have access to only a student’s personally identifiable information, such as date of birth and address. The school district has not disclosed the basis for this policy. The Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) (20 U.S.C. § 1232g; 34 CFR Part 99) is a federal law that protects the privacy of student education records. But none of its provisions constrain the sharing of the information that would allow school police to perform more efficiently their duties. KRS §158.154 and 158.155 and 158.156 require school administrators to report crimes to police, providing names, addresses, ages, nature and extent of the incident, and “[a]ny other information that the principal making the report believes may be helpful.”
— In the U.S. Congress, Congressman Josh Gottheimer has introduced bipartisan legislation that will require silent panic alarms in all schools to immediately alert law enforcement of an active shooter situation. The “Alyssa’s Legacy Youth in School Safety Alert Act” (ALYSSA Act), memorializes Alyssa Alhadeff, who lost her life in the campus shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida in 2018.