— In Oregon, the Court of Appeals of Oregon ruled that Oregon law required the reversal of dismissed claims brought by paraeducators who worked in special education classrooms within the Portland Public Schools. The paraeducators claimed that, “they repeatedly and regularly were subjected to physical assaults, and in some instances sexual assaults, by students, but, despite complaints and entreaties… (that school officials) failed to correct or ameliorate their working conditions.” The appellate court ruled that the trial court erred when it dismissed claims for battery, hostile work environment and disability discrimination. “(The) public school district was directly liable for alleged batteries committed by students, where allegations included that district knew that students were physically aggressive or violent and committing battery against paraeducators… had authority… but failed to take any corrective action.” The work environment could be found to be hostile at trial because (the), “abuse was offensive and interfered with paraeducators’ work, safety, and wellbeing, (and) that…paraeducators (were a) protected class, specifically that they were female.” The failure of the school officials to take appropriate action “was outside scope of their employment… precluding substitution of (the school) district as sole defendant.” Moore v. Portland Public Schools.
— In South Dakota, the superintendent for the Rapid City Area Schools says that “more safety measures in Rapid City schools would be forthcoming. Specifically, a gun incident, in which a deployed police officer “made the call…did the body search and found the weapon,” will provide the emphasis for a change in policy. The new policy will seek funding to add weapon detection equipment in the schools.
— In Colorado, officials in the Douglas County School District are adding therapy dogs to the school safety team. After receiving a multi discipline therapy K-9 certification, the new policy will partner therapy dogs with school resource officers. Training will be provided “on ways to provide emotional support.”
— In Michigan, “(m)issteps and failures by Oxford Community School’s former superintendent and two former members of his cabinet snowballed to allow the Oxford High School shooter to slip through the school’s threat assessment and suicide intervention systems and carry out Michigan’s worst school shooting, according to a 572-page report” issued by a team of investigators from Guidepost Solutions.