Safety Law News for October 15, 2019

• In North Carolina, the North Carolina Supreme Court ruled that a student was properly adjudicated for disorderly conduct after throwing a chair toward another student in the school’s cafeteria, running away, refusing to cooperate with the school resource officer, and disrupting the school.  The lower court had refused to uphold the charges against the student because the chair did not hit anything or anyone.  (In Re T.T.E.)

• In Arizona, officials in the Mesa Public Schools are experiencing an enormous increase in student vaping violations.  The number of students disciplined for vaping has more than doubled each year since 2016. In 2018, the district had 645 vaping-related violations.

• In California, a new law requires every person employed by a public K-12 school or public University as a school security officer to complete a training courseSB 390, also will require annual training of all officers.

• In New Mexico, the Española School District is finalizing an agreement with the Española Police Department to deploy two sworn police officers under a rigid set of guidelines.  Under the terms of the Memorandum of Understanding, the officers can only conduct searches of students when there is probable cause, not the reasonable suspicion required for school district employees.  The officers may only question a student about an incident in the presence of parents and must provide Miranda warnings.