— In California, the United States Court of Appeals ruled that school officials did not violate the First Amendment rights of students for discipling them for off-campus Internet posts that amounted to “severe bullying or harassment targeting particular classmates.” The Instagram posts, “ranged from immature posts making fun of a student’s braces, glasses, or weight to much more disturbing posts that targeted vicious invective with racist and violent themes against specific Black classmates.” The court upheld the decision of the lower court that the “speech bore a sufficient nexus to (the school) to warrant disciplinary action by the school.” The recent U.S. Supreme Court case, Mahanoy Area Sch. Dist. v. B.L. ex rel. Levy, did not give the students immunity for their off-campus speech because, “once (the) posts hit their targets, the school was confronted with a situation in which a number of its students thereby became the subjects of serious or severe bullying or harassment targeting particular individuals—which Mahanoy specifically identifies as an “off-campus circumstance in which the school’s regulatory interests remain significant.” Chen Through Chen v Albany Unified School District
— In Oregon, officials in Portland are in initial talks to return police to public school campuses after a third shooting outside a school in two months. The City removed police in 2020 as protests and riots raged across the country in support of defunding the police following the killing of George Floyd.
— In Virginia, the push for increasing school safety is leading to more police officers on campus. Governor Youngkin is placing emphasis on having a law enforcement officer in every public school. The Virginia Center for School and Campus Safety is conducting training that recent legislation makes mandatory for all Virginia school resource officers school security officers.
— In Maine, critical staffing needs in the City is causing the removal of police on school campuses. All school resource officers have been reassigned to patrol duty. If a police officer is needed at the school, staff will need to call 9-1-1.