— In Illinois, the Appellate Court of Illinois affirmed the decision of school officials of a private high school to “to expel students who were found to be responsible for offensive and divisive social media accounts.” The students used social media to create “numerous divisive comments on the issues of race, sexual orientation, gender, and religion … and invited others to a meetup.” School officials, after a police investigation, gave the students “the option to either withdraw from the school or face expulsion.” The students “withdrew from the school … subsequently tried to walk back the withdrawal, and they later filed a complaint in the circuit court … for money damages for breach of contract.” The students alleged that “they were coerced by (school officials) into withdrawing from the school … that (school officials) breached the terms of its Parent-Student Handbook when it essentially expelled them without giving them a disciplinary hearing.” The appellate court affirmed the trial court’s order granting summary judgment to the school officials. It held that “courts have recognized a cause of action for breach of an implied contract by students against a private school … when the school makes an arbitrary and capricious adverse academic decision in the school’s treatment of the student, including dismissal … An academic decision is arbitrary and capricious when it lacks any discernable rational basis.” Based upon this standard, “the record shows that (school officials) employed professional judgment in acting on the information … had a rational basis for (the) disciplinary decision as it was grounded in a legitimate concern for the safety and welfare of the school … (and) (school officials’) conduct and decision-making was consistent with how (they) had dealt with similar social media misconduct in the past.” Uzubell v. Mount Carmel High School
— In Virginia, the Salem City Schools, are deploying “a security system at Salem High School that uses artificial intelligence to detect weapons.” The Corum AI System, “works by using AI to monitor the school’s existing camera feeds for any sign of weapons. If a threat is detected, the system notifies a designated group of staff and administrators, as well as members of the Salem Police Department. Anyone who receives the alert can review the footage on their phone and assess the situation.”
— In Illinois, Senate Bill 1519 has been put before the Governor to sign into law. The provisions of SB 1519 “require that each school district annually report the number of students who were referred to a law enforcement agency or official and the number of instances of referrals to law enforcement that students received … prohibits school personnel from issuing a monetary fine, fee, ticket, or citation for a municipal code violation … (and) provides that school personnel (rather than a school district) may not refer a truant, chronic truant, or truant minor to any other local public entity, school resource officer, or peace officer.”
— In Kentucky, Senate Bill 181, places constraints upon teacher-student communication in Kentucky schools. It provisions require that “all electronic communication between school staff, coaches, volunteers, and students must be conducted through designated, traceable platforms.” The intent of the legislature is to curtail the risk of child sexual abuse by inappropriate communications.