— In California, the California Court of Appeal reversed the summary dismissal of a claim against a school for negligence in hiring, training, supervising, and retaining a teacher who became romantically and sexually involved with a student. In remanding the case back to the trial court the appellate court held that “a school district and its employees have a special relationship with the district’s pupils, a relationship arising from the mandatory character of school attendance and the comprehensive control over students exercised by school personnel.” The appellate court went on to declare that, “(b)ecause of this special relationship, … the duty of care owed by school personnel includes the duty to use reasonable measures to protect students from foreseeable injury at the hands of third parties acting negligently or intentionally.” Finally, the appellate court announced “relevant policy considerations” to control the issue of liability: (1) the foreseeability of harm to the plaintiff, (2) the degree of certainty that the plaintiff suffered injury, (2) the closeness of the connection between the defendant’s conduct and the injury suffered, (3) the moral blame attached to the defendant’s conduct, (4) the policy of preventing future harm, (5) the extent of the burden to the defendant and consequences to the community of imposing a duty to exercise care with resulting liability for breach, (6) and the availability, cost, and prevalence of insurance for the risk involved.” A.P. v. Orange Unified School District
— In California, school resource officers from the Paso Robles Police Department have been busy this summer continuing to support local youth by participating and assisting in local summer schools, specialty training, the Junior Giants League, as well with as San Luis Obispo County Sheriff’s Office at its annual youth summer camps.
— In Colorado, a judge has ordered the Denver Public Schools Board of Education to release the recording of an executive session in March in which the board discussed returning police officers to some schools as resource officers for the rest of the school year. The Board of Education’s decision came the day after a student at East High School allegedly shot two school administrators before fleeing, and members unanimously voted to return school resource officers without public debate following a five-hour secret session. Denver Public Schools administrators told board members that as many as four out of every five students surveyed wanted armed Denver Police officers back on campuses.
— In Tennessee, the Governor is inviting local law enforcement agencies and schools to apply for nearly $200 million in grant funding to further strengthen security at Tennessee schools. The two grant programs include significant funding to support placing a full-time, armed school resource officer (SRO) at every public school and make physical security improvements at public and non-public schools across Tennessee.