Minnesota, the home state of St. Floyd of Minneapolis, has outlawed police officers in schools from physically restraining students.
Mn 121A.58 reads:
An employee or agent of a district, including a school resource officer, security personnel, or police officer contracted with a district, shall not inflict any form of physical holding that restricts or impairs a pupil's ability to breathe; restricts or impairs a pupil's ability to communicate distress; places pressure or weight on a pupil's head, throat, neck, chest, lungs, sternum, diaphragm, back, or abdomen; or results in straddling a pupil's torso.
Rep. Laurie Pryor, DFL-Minnetonka, who heads the House Education Policy Committee said,
"We want to make sure that they are being handled in a way that really respects the fact that they're young, they're children. And we want to make sure that we don't create situations that will lead to excessive force, we want to make sure that our kids are safe and that they are being handled in a way that's really respecting their needs."
Democrat Governor Walz happily signed the bill.
It seems great, until a crazed 6'7", 270lb kid is beating down his teacher for taking his Nintendo Switch.
Police departments across the state have responded by taking their Resource Officers out of the schools.
Brooklyn Park is one city that still has resource officers in the school. Police Chief Mark Bruly told his officers they're free to leave the school if they want.
"When you have these unclear laws that are contrary to what their values are, what they're trying to do as a job, it really tugs at them. What are we doing out here?" Bruly said. "The consequences are incredibly high. If a police officer screws up? What happens? They can get criminally charged, they can get sued, they can get terminated. Or their POST license can get taken away to where they can't be a police officer anymore."
It's pretty clear that the new law Democrats claim would protect students actually makes schools less safe for students, teachers, and administrators alike.
There is a growing list of city and county law enforcement groups joining the pull out from Minnesota schools because of the law.
Here's where the list sits so far:
- Anoka County Sheriff's Office
- Anoka Police Department
- Blaine Police Department
- Champlin Police Department
- Coon Rapids Police Department
- Hennepin County Sheriff's Office (Rockford High School)
- Moorhead Police Department
- Otter Tail County Sheriff's Office (Underwood School)
- Wayzata Police Department
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