— In Rhode Island, the Supreme Court of Rhode Island affirmed the liability verdict against a school whose disciplinary policy failed to provide students with a safe and secure school. The victimized student was assaulted by another student at school. The lower court and the appellate court held that the school breached the duty to maintain a safe and secure school by failing to act on an aggressive student’s lengthy history of disciplinary issues. The restorative justice reforms of the school were rejected by the courts because the school did nothing “to supervise (the) aggressive student (despite the) aggressive student’s progressively more serious disciplinary problems, of which school was well aware.” Dextraze v. Bernard
— In California, officials in the Mountain View Whisman School District are assessing a Report submitted by Mountain View Public Safety Advisory Board. The Advisory Board, after months of surveys and interviews with parents, students and school staff, recommended that, “school resource officers have a place on campus;…(that there be) greater transparency on what law enforcement activities can take place on campus, and suggest that disciplinary actions be handled discreetly and out of sight of other students.”
— Nationally, the Governmental Accountability Office released new data on bullying in schools. The Report reviews “hostile behaviors in K-12 schools,…the prevalence and nature of hostile behaviors in K-12 public schools; the presence of K-12 school programs and practices to address hostile behaviors; and how Education has addressed complaints related to these issues in school years 2010-11 through 2019-20.” Statistically, “(a)bout one in five students aged 12 to 18 were bullied annually in school years 2014-15, 2016-17, and 2018-19….Hate crimes—which most commonly targeted students because of their race and national origin—and physical attacks with a weapon nearly doubled. Sexual assaults also increased during the same period.” FULL REPORT
— In Colorado, officials in the Denver Public Schools have replaced the school resource officer program with an in-house deployment of security personnel. The safety patrol officers wear uniforms, are armed with guns, and have authority to ticket students for certain offenses. Parents who succeeded in persuading the Board of Education to remove school resource officers view the new policy as “a slap in the face to our community.”