— In New York, the Supreme Court, Appellate Division reversed the dismissal of a case bought by parents of student who “was repeatedly sexually abused by a teacher while attending an elementary school.” The parents alleged that the school, “negligently failed to prevent the abuse.” The lower court dismissed the claim of the parents, holding that the school “did not have actual or constructive notice of the teacher’s alleged propensity to engage in sexual abuse or of the abuse that the teacher allegedly perpetrated.” The appellate court reversed, sending the case on to a jury for trial. The standard for determining liability is whether the school knew or should have known of the employee’s propensity for the conduct which caused the injury…(and whether) the school’s supervision and protection (is comparable) to that of a parent of ordinary prudence placed in the same situation and armed with the same information.” The appellate court ruled that a jury must sort out these issues, particularly “given the frequency of the alleged abuse, which occurred over the entirety of a school year, and always occurred inside the same classroom during the school day.” At trial, the school will be given the opportunity to “demonstrate, prima facie, that their supervision of both the teacher and the (student) was not negligent.” Sayegh v. City of Yonkers
— In Texas, the “former school police officer who was part of the slow law enforcement response to the 2022 mass shooting at Robb Elementary School in Uvalde, Texas, pleaded not guilty Thursday to charges of failing to take action as a gunman killed 19 children and two teachers inside a fourth-grade classroom. The officer “responded to the scene but then waited more than 70 minutes to confront the shooter inside the school.”
— In Oregon, a member of the Medford School Board is concerned that on the issue of campus safety “there’s a breakdown of trust in our community.” Specifically, the board member believes that, “the district could do more to better track troublesome students and to take prevention more seriously.” Data show that recently, “four firearms have been found at MSD” campuses.
— In Alabama, officials in Marshall County are attributing an 86 percent decrease in vape confiscation to a district-wide policy. Under the policy, students “caught with vapes automatically get 10 days of in-school suspension and a summons to juvenile court among other punishments depending on the number of offenses.” Officials believe that, “students are taking note of these punishments and perhaps maybe quitting the habit altogether.”