School officials may be talking less about school safety today, but lawyers and the media certainly are not silent on the topic. Many school security directors, school police chiefs and school safety consultants will tell you (at least privately) that getting school boards, administrators and staff to consistently focus proactively on school safety is increasingly […]
Category Archive: School Law and Liability
School Safety Challenged by Volunteer Criminal Backgrounds
Is the parent volunteer in your child’s school a convicted sex offender or drug dealer? School officials struggle balancing parental involvement and protecting students from adults with criminal backgrounds who want to volunteer at their child’s school. The tension was highlighted in Wednesday’s Associated Press article entitled Would-be School Volunteers Thwarted By Their Past. Parent […]
Federal Court Rules on School Visitor Management System Suit
Does requiring parents and other visitors to provide personal identification to determine whether they are registered sex offenders violate the visitors’ constitutional rights? According to the U.S. Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals, in affirming a decision of the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Texas, the answer is, “No.” Plaintiffs-Appellants Larry and Yvonne Meadows […]
School Safety: Are You Doing What You Say You Are Doing?
Disconnects between what is on paper and what actually occurs in day-to-day practice in school safety can present school leaders with safety risks and potential legal liability. One Midwest school district was challenged in a law suit for allegedly not following its emergency plan when a student choked on a hot dog in the school […]
The Greatest School Security Liabilities Often Go Unseen
School leaders often believe they have a school safety risk or liability in one area, when they are really much more vulnerable on entirely different issues. We know superintendents and school boards can tell when they have a hot-button issue related to school safety. Increasingly, these issues are triggering parental, media, and/or other pressures on school leaders. These […]
Knoxville School Shootings: Were they Foreseeable?
An elementary school principal and assistant principal were allegedly shot by a teacher this past Wednesday. It only took two days before news headlines started reading: Teacher who allegedly shot principals called a ‘time bomb’; School officials investigated negative claims about Foster Brother of alleged shooter at Inskip Elementary blames schools; Sibling says he warned […]