In Massachusetts, the United States District Court upheld the right of school officials to discipline a group of students for bullying a classmate on the SnapChat Internet application. The court held that “one of the legal responsibilities of a school is to protect students from bullying.” In so doing, the court rejected the argument of the bullies that the Tinker v. Des Moines Schools standard protected their speech: “[t]here is no constitutional right to be a bully … Schools are generally permitted to step in and protect students from abuse.” [Doe by & through Doe v. Hopkinton Pub. School]
— In Washington State, the Edmonds School District is replacing their school resource officer program with a version of the “liaison officer model.” The plan is for the Edmonds, Lynnwood, and Mountlake Terrace police departments to daily assign a duty officer on patrol to be responsible for having a school be part of their beat.
— In Illinois, the Champaign Community Unit School District No. 4, with over 10,000 students and 19 campuses, did not report any arrests of students to the U.S. Department of Education’s Office for Civil Rights for the years 2013 thru 2018. But the actual data show that four students were arrested during the 2013-14 school year, 17 students were arrested during the 2015-16 school year. A Freedom of Information Act request also showed that the Urbana District 116 provided arrest and referral data. However, the information provided does not match what the district reported to the federal government.
— In Ohio, 17 schools from 11 counties are asking the Ohio Supreme Court to allow them to continue arming non-law enforcement employees as an option for student safety. The schools are asking for the court to reverse an appeals court decision that said state law did not allow boards of education to allow armed personnel without training on the same level as police and security officers. (Gabbard v. Madison Local School District)