Safety Law News for July 13, 2018 – School Safety Law Blog

In Connecticut, officials in North Haven are expanding the school resource officer program immediately. The decision comes after hundreds of residents overwhelmingly voted at town meeting to approve an ordinance that would assign an SRO to each building.

In Pennsylvania, officials from the Plum School District want to establish their own in-school police force. The school board wants officers with experience working with people, using firearms, and with training on deescalating situations. The Allegheny County Court of Common Pleas would have to grant permission before the five guards and a supervisor can be hired.

In Maryland, the United States District Court upheld a claim for gross negligence filed by parents of a student with asthma who died when she was denied access to healthcare at school. The court ruled that the educators were not just aware of a serious risk to the child, but were faced with a specific, imminent threat to the child’s life, were aware of a specific treatment that would have resolved that threat, but deliberately chose to prevent the child from obtaining that treatment. (Grant-Walton v. Montgomery County Board of Education).

In the District of Columbia, the United States District Court held that the school policy requiring the random, suspicionless drug testing of employees was a violation of the Fourth Amendment. The court ruled that although the District had a sincere interest in protecting children, this interest did not justify the random urinalysis of teachers. (Ass’n of Indep. Sch. of Greater Washington v. D.C.#1).