One Florida
county is set to adopt a zero-tolerance policy for school -related crimes that
excuse the school from reporting certain student-committed crimes to law
enforcement.
Draft policy documents
publicly posted on The
Lee County School District website reveal language taken almost word-for-word
from a provision of the Marjory Stoneman Douglas School Safety Act excusing
school districts from reporting certain student-crimes to law enforcement.
“Petty
acts of misconduct and misdemeanors do not require reports to a law enforcement
agency, these include, but not limited to:
(a) Disorderly conduct
(b) Simple assault or battery
(c) Affray
(d) Theft of less than $300
(e) Trespassing
(f) Vandalism of less than $1,000
If
a student commits more than one misdemeanor, the School Threat Assessment Team
must consult with the school resource officer to determine if the act should be
reported to law enforcement.
Florida SB 7026 signed into law by former Florida Governor Rick Scott in 2018 requires
all county school districts adopt this policy and implement these procedures:
“Zero-tolerance
policies do not require the reporting of petty acts of misconduct and
misdemeanors to a law enforcement agency, including but not limited to:
a)
Disorderly
conduct
b)
Disrupting
a school function
c)
Simple
assault or battery
d)
Affray
e)
Theft
of less than $300
f)
Trespassing
g)
Vandalism
of less than $1000
With pressure now
placed on school resource officers (SRO) to report or not report these types of
student-related crimes to law enforcement, open government watchdogs have lots more ammunition
with which to criticize school districts and LEO---becoming more opaque versus more
transparent—and policies such as these put SROs in possibly very tenuous circumstances.
County Examiners role serves to remind Florida school districts and SROs that our 2018 Legislature passed this bill and our former Governor signed this bill into law. And in their haste to rush this bill through the Lege we now learn they've endorsed hiding evidence of
school-related crime, keeping the public in the dark about legitimate public safety issues occurring in the
grounds of their neighborhood schools.
