— In Rhode Island, the United States District Court disagreed with the parent of a middle school student who asserted in a lawsuit that school resource officers used excessive force in removing him from the interior of the school building during an arrest for disorderly conduct. The court denied the motion for summary judgment filed by the parent, ruling that video evidence did not support the excessive force claim. The video supported the narrative that the parent “went to the school during school hours to remove his daughter (who had texted him for help with an issue with her clothing)… As he entered, a school employee asked him to put on a mask to comply with Covid guidelines and he refused, threw the proffered mask in the trash and entered the building to sit in the school lobby… (when asked) to wait outside while his daughter was summoned, he refused, remaining inside the main lobby of the school… (The parent) began to become irate and belligerent, yelling loudly and using profane language directed at school officials.” Efforts to deescalate the situation failed. The SROs “used a head-to-head maneuver to safely finish pushing Plaintiff Mello out of the school lobby into the vestibule and take him to the ground in a controlled descent in the vestibule… A significant struggle followed before (the SROs) were able to apply handcuffs.” The court denied the motion by the parent because, “having watched (the video) carefully, I find that the videos on which Plaintiffs rely do not utterly discredit Defendants’ version of the events; to the contrary… I find that these videos are susceptible of the interpretation presented by Defendants, including that (the parent’s) disorderly conduct was seriously disruptive and frightening, potentially endangering children and staff at a public school during school hours so that, although the crimes (disorderly conduct and possession of illegal knives) are misdemeanors, their severity in context was significant, and that (the parent’s) aggressive and persistent resistance during and after arrest justified the extent of the force that (the SROs) deployed.” Mello v. Arruda
— Nationally, “A new security standard for schools from the nonprofit American National Standards Institute (ANSI) suggests a three-pronged approach (for K-12 schools) involving physical protection, behavior management and emergency operations planning.”
— In Georgia, “following a string of recent weapon-related incidents on school campuses, Gwinnett County parents packed the first School Safety Advisory Committee meeting of the year… demanding stronger security measures and more training for teachers to better protect students.”
— In Illinois, the Illinois State Board of Education “will now be required to partner with first responders to create threat assessment plans for schools across the state.” Senate Bill 2057 authorizes “the Illinois State Board of Education and the Office of the State Fire Marshall to create new rules that guide school districts, private schools, and first responders on how to develop threat assessment procedures, rapid entry response plans, and cardiac emergency response plans.”