— In California, the California Court of Appeal affirmed the dismissal of a claim asserted by a student who was injured when a teacher fell on the student while breaking up a fight in which the student was involved. The teacher “immediately intervened to prevent the two boys from hurting themselves or someone else. While pulling the larger boy away from plaintiff – and being hit himself by plaintiff, who continued to throw punches after the other boy stopped—the teacher lost his balance and fell onto plaintiff, breaking plaintiff’s leg.” The student brought a negligence lawsuit against the teacher and the school district, claiming that “the teacher should not have tried to stop the fight because of his weight and physical condition, and (the teacher) should have done something else, sooner, to prevent the fight…(and) the school district failed to train its teachers how to safely intervene in physical altercations between students.” The appellate court, affirming the lower court ruling, stated that “the special relationship between school personnel and students under their supervision and control…includes the duty to use reasonable measures to protect students from foreseeable injury at the hands of third parties acting negligently or intentionally… There is no more to say than we have already said about the state of the evidence and the effect of the instructions that were given.” I.C. v. Compton Unified School District
— Nationally, the Congress is considering setting aside “$100 million in annual funding for school safety upgrades through the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.” The provisions of H.R. 1335 (The Measures for Safer School Districts Act), would create “a nationwide framework for school security focusing on standardizing emergency response and notification protocols, notifying parents immediately, and reinforcing school infrastructure for maximum protection.”
— In New Mexico, lawmakers have introduced a comprehensive crime package, known as House Bill 8, that would “make a threat of a school shooting a fourth-degree felony.” State officials are also calling for the “creation of a Department of School Safety and a “czar” who would oversee it.”
— In Kentucky, proposed House Bill 14 “aims to enhance school safety by encouraging the implementation of wearable panic alert systems” in schools across the state. Schools would “implement “wearable panic alarm” technology…(allowing) teachers to silently alert law enforcement and administrators in emergency situations with the push of a button.”