School Law and the Public Schools: A Practical Guide for Educational Leaders, 5e © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. Chapter 4 National Security and School Safety

School Law and the Public Schools: A Practical Guide for Educational Leaders, 5e Essex © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. 4-2 National security and school safety have had a significant impact on the administration and operation of public schools. School safety is a major concern because schools are presumed to be “safe places” by the courts.

School Law and the Public Schools: A Practical Guide for Educational Leaders, 5e Essex © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. 4-3 National and school safety creates policy implications for school leaders. Contingency plans should be developed, simulated and implemented as the need arises to address, anticipate or foresee events that may threaten school safety.

School Law and the Public Schools: A Practical Guide for Educational Leaders, 5e Essex © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. 4-4 USA Patriot Act While the intent of this act is to address potential terrorist acts in the United States, it does implicate public school in the following manner: School leaders are required under authorized investigations by the FBI to produce books, records, paper documents or other items.

School Law and the Public Schools: A Practical Guide for Educational Leaders, 5e Essex © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. 4-5 Probable cause is not required. Information related to Internet usage, including addresses, may be monitored without offending privacy rights. The FBI may obtain information under the Family Education Rights and Privacy Act without consent of parents or legal guardians.

School Law and the Public Schools: A Practical Guide for Educational Leaders, 5e Essex © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. 4-6 No Child Left Behind and School Safety Under the No Child Left Behind Act, school safety also has become a majority priority for local school districts, which must provide assurances that plans are on file regarding steps schools will initiate to maintain safe and drug- free environments.

School Law and the Public Schools: A Practical Guide for Educational Leaders, 5e Essex © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. 4-7 Handling Violence in Schools With the presence of gangs in schools, school leaders are encountering pressures from parents, citizens, and school boards to provide a safe environment where teachers can teach and students can learn.

School Law and the Public Schools: A Practical Guide for Educational Leaders, 5e Essex © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. 4-8 Added to these pressures is the view of the courts that schools are “safe places” based on the assumption that children are supervised by licensed and well-trained teachers and administrators.

School Law and the Public Schools: A Practical Guide for Educational Leaders, 5e Essex © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved. 4-9 Bullying Bullying is associated with many acts of violence in public schools. Bullying generally involves intentional cruel behavior between the person who exhibits this behavior and the same students who are victims of bullying behavior.

School Law and the Public Schools: A Practical Guide for Educational Leaders, 5e Essex © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved There is often a pattern of repeated anti-social behavior toward others but bullying may also involve a single incident. A bully, depending on the circumstances, may be charged criminally if he/she exceeds age twelve.

School Law and the Public Schools: A Practical Guide for Educational Leaders, 5e Essex © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved Cyberbullying Cyberbullying involves the use of electronic devices to post hurtful, embarrassing text or images intended to create anxiety, intimidation, or emotional distress in another person.

School Law and the Public Schools: A Practical Guide for Educational Leaders, 5e Essex © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved More serious forms of communication may involve hate speech, threats, sexually offensive content, or messages designed to ridicule the victim. A consistent pattern of these types of communication on the Internet constitutes cyberbullying.

School Law and the Public Schools: A Practical Guide for Educational Leaders, 5e Essex © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved Megan Meier Cyberbullying Prevention Act Megan Meier committed suicide after a classmate and her mother fabricated an online account attributed to a fictitious sixteen-year-old boy to whom Megan was attracted. Cordial and positive messages about her turned negative along with bulletins suggesting that she was a bad person.

School Law and the Public Schools: A Practical Guide for Educational Leaders, 5e Essex © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved After Megan committed suicide, H.R. 1966, known as the Megan Meier Cyberbullying Prevention Act was introduced in Congress.

School Law and the Public Schools: A Practical Guide for Educational Leaders, 5e Essex © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved The intent of this act is to amend the federal criminal code to impose criminal penalties on anyone who transmits in interstate or foreign commerce a communication intended to coerce, intimidate, harass, or cause substantial emotional distress to another person using electronic means to support severe, repeated, and hostile behavior. This bill is pending in Congress

School Law and the Public Schools: A Practical Guide for Educational Leaders, 5e Essex © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved Gang Characteristics and Membership Gangs are best described as groups of individuals involved in unusually close social relationships. They share a common collective identity expressed through a gang name. Gangs adopt certain symbols or signs and claim control over a certain turf or territory.

School Law and the Public Schools: A Practical Guide for Educational Leaders, 5e Essex © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved Gang Dress Gang members tend to wear specific apparel or colors to convey gang affiliation. Where gang activity has been prevalent in the school or community and there is clear knowledge that certain types of dress are associated with disruptive gang activity, school officials may prohibit such dress.

School Law and the Public Schools: A Practical Guide for Educational Leaders, 5e Essex © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved Duty of Care and Gang Violence Based on foreseeability, school personnel are expected to exercise the standard of care that any other reasonable professional would exercise under the same or similar circumstances. If school officials are aware of gang presence in their schools, there is a greater expectation for monitoring gang activity; consequently, the standard of care is higher based on prior knowledge of gang presence.

School Law and the Public Schools: A Practical Guide for Educational Leaders, 5e Essex © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved School Uniform Dress Policies, School Safety, and Students’ Freedom of Expression Rights Many school officials in their desire to create and maintain safe schools have developed uniform dress code policies for students.

School Law and the Public Schools: A Practical Guide for Educational Leaders, 5e Essex © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved As school uniform policies are drawn by school leaders, it is prudent that they be mindful of the freedom of expression rights of students. Policies that do not recognize these rights are risky at best and may result in legal challenges and unnecessary legal costs to school districts.

School Law and the Public Schools: A Practical Guide for Educational Leaders, 5e Essex © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved Drug Testing Until the mid 1990s, no case involving drug testing in public schools had been litigated by the U.S. Supreme Court. Vernonia School District v. Acton, however, reached the Supreme Court when the Ninth Circuit Court reversed the district court’s holding for the school district.

School Law and the Public Schools: A Practical Guide for Educational Leaders, 5e Essex © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved Under the district’s policy, all student athletes were required to provide a urine sample at the beginning of the season for the particular sport in which they participated.

School Law and the Public Schools: A Practical Guide for Educational Leaders, 5e Essex © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved Alcohol and Breathalyzer Testing School officials may, based on school or district policy, administer breathalyzer testing where there is an immediate concern regarding students under the influence of alcohol during voluntary school-sponsored events.

School Law and the Public Schools: A Practical Guide for Educational Leaders, 5e Essex © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved School officials will likely succeed in initiating a breathalyzer test to any student if they have reasonable suspicion that the student is under the influence of alcohol.

School Law and the Public Schools: A Practical Guide for Educational Leaders, 5e Essex © 2012 Pearson Education, Inc. All rights reserved Reasonable suspicion may be established if school officials detect the smell of alcohol on a student or observe behavior that might suggest a student is intoxicated, such as slurred speech or impaired motor control.