— In Florida, the United States Court of Appeals held that school officials’ policy of separating school bathrooms based on biological sex did not violate the Equal Protection Clause of the Fourteenth Amendment nor did it violate the statutory requirements of Title IX. The court reasoned that (1) educators were responsible for providing “proper attention to health, safety, and other matters relating to the welfare of students” within the school district; (2) The protection of students’ privacy interests in using the bathroom away from the opposite sex and in shielding their bodies from the opposite sex was an obvious and important governmental objective; (3) the bathroom policy was substantially related to that objective; and (4) Title IX’s general prohibition on sex discrimination provides “an express carve-out with respect to living facilities: “nothing contained [in Chapter 38] shall be construed to prohibit any educational institution receiving funds under this Act, from maintaining separate living facilities for the different sexes.”” Adams by and through Kasper v School Board of St. Johns County
— In Kansas, all employees in the Blue Valley School District wear emergency alert buttons. The “CrisisAlert badge” equips them to press the button three times to alert administrators, school resource officers, and school nurses to an emergency. An entire school can go on lockdown with just eight button presses.
— In Indiana, the Muncie Community Schools will now conduct its own background checks on school security guards. The school district has a contract with a private security company, Legacy Life Security Solutions, to provide guards. However, a guard was recently charged with intimidation where the defendant draws a deadly weapon, two counts of dealing marijuana with a prior drug conviction, as well as driving while suspended with a prior conviction.
— In Indiana, officials in Austin are changing school district policy after a kidnapping incident on the playground of one of its schools. A woman, unrelated to any child on the playground, went over the playground’s fence and picked up a child. School resource officers will act as monitors when students are outside.