— In Massachusetts, the Appeals Court of Massachusetts ruled that a student’s statement to a school administrator that he was going to kill his teacher was not protected speech under the First Amendment. In reversing the lower court, the appellate court held that the student’s demeanor when making threat to assistant principal that he was going to “kill that bitch,” his escalating behavior in school, and the specific anger he expressed towards his teacher established the requisite probable cause for juvenile delinquency complaint. The court held that, “(w)hen a defendant utters a threat to commit a crime to a third party who would likely communicate it to the ultimate target, the defendant’s act constitutes evidence of his intent to communicate the threat to the intended victim.” Commonwealth v. Leonardo L.
— In Arizona, the Tempe Union High School District Governing Board unanimously reversed its resolution to remove school resource officers from all campuses. Confronted by opposition from the district’s six high school principals, at least five former board members, the Tempe Police Department and numerous parents, students and others, the board decided to spend the next year studying the issue.
— In Texas, the school resource officers for the Killeen Independent School District are adding body cameras to their campus activities. The KISD Board of Trustees unanimously approved by the purchase of the cameras that will be utilized only for incident-related calls. The video footage would be kept on file for a total of 180 days.
— In Maine, state officials are placing new emphasis on the Drug Abuse Resistance Education (DARE) program that has been taught in schools for decades. At least 120 Maine schools currently have the revised DARE program, that previously aimed at keeping kids away from drugs. The revised DARE program includes additional topics, e.g., the dangers of social media, peer pressure, bullying, stress, and developing healthy life skills.